Columbus Review

When was the last time you heard a major character say to an important character, "Naa meeda promise vesi cheppu", that too at an as important a stage as the climax?  If you can't remember when, it is because it's an obviously old-fashioned way of telling a scene involving more than two lovers.

Ashwin (Sumanth Ashwin) is a college-goer in love with Indu (Mishti Chakraborthy).  Being madly in love, he cares for nothing and no one.  As fate would have it, he gets entangled in a crime and suffers a term of imprisonment.  On returning, he is back to his cheerful, light-hearted self, raging with the single-minded aim of getting Indu back in his life.  He takes the help of Neeru (Seerat Kapoor).  What follows is a rom-com affair involving Ashwin and Neeru.

Ramesh Samala, the director, comes up with a rather stale idea.  After feting us to an off-colour narration that borders on the low-brow (complete with bra sentiment and a toilet con), the film has the gall to treat us to something like 'Indu japam' in a Kabbadi match.

Firstly, there is nothing like a credible chemistry going for Ashwin and Neeru so as to make us connect to their feelings.  The screenplay would have left a mark had there been some more space for their friendship; one doesn't feel it when Neeru sees a transformation in her feelings.  That is how the narration is half-baked.

As the narration doesn't have an element of elaborate telling, two songs were spaced narrowly.  Since the audience has seen ideas like these rehashed and retold one too many times, it needed to be told with many nuances.  However, all that we have is a hero who keeps vying for a handshake with his girl and nothing more.

The idea of comedy should have ended with Sapthagiri, a wannabe tv serial director with a penchant for making 300 episodes out of a semi-line.  It is extended to include Nagineedu, who plays Neeru's father (remember his "..work ah?").  In an unintended comedy situation, you have a HR manager completing a technical project overnight!  In yet another situation meant for action, you have the hero enter the scene, breaking the glass door, on his bike - even hitting the other one before jumping off in a repeat of an aeons-old stunt.

The characterizations fall flat; characters don't come with layers (at least one of them should have).  It is as if some of them were picked from yesteryear cinema and transposed into the present without modifications.

Sumanth Ashwin has always got roles like this right.  His dialogue delivery is good generally, but he surely needs to show many more shades in the coming years.  Seerat Kapoor has a good screen presence and she looks slice-of-life when she is behaving like the average girl.  Mishti is just about ok.

The technical aspects pass muster.  The BGM could have been better.  Jatin's cinematography is good.

Verdict: A hackneyed storyline and an archaic narration style.  Characters without layers and writing without profundity.