'Hippi', starring Kartikeya, Digangana Suryavanshi and others, hit the screens this Thursday.  Here is our review of the youthful romantic drama.

Story:

Devadas (Kartikeya) falls in love with Amuktha (Digangana Suryavanshi), a friend of his current girlfriend.  A trip to Goa makes him all the more crazy for her.  

A few days later, after they confess their love to each other, the duo finds themselves having discords and arguments over petty issues.  Frustrated with his girlfriend's tantrums, Devadas decides to get rid of her.

The second half is about what he does to make her grow disinterested in him and how his game plan backfires.  Eventually, will they find peace in each other's lifelong company?  That's the climax for you.

Analysis:

Notice the first scene and the interval bang.  In the opening sequence, you find Devadas telling the whole world that he wants to commit suicide, having lost his peace after falling in love.  In the interval scene, he is found repeating the same point, this time with a bald head after a series of comical happenings in his life.  Therein lies the problem with 'Hippi'.  The director, equipped with a wafer-thin story, reveals right in the beginning what should have been told in the interval scene for the first time.

This is not to say that what happens in between is pointless.  The film presents a fairly gripping story-telling style in the first half.  For example, how Devadas fell for Amuktha is shown after establishing their discord in the first act.  And the scenes in Goa, involving the duo, Jazba Singh and Vennela Kishore (as Harley Davidson) may well engage the youths out there.

The real issues spill over from interval into the second half.  Fifteen minutes or so into it, we realize that 'Hippi' is merely about those millennials who don't know what is going on in their lives and would be ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  At one level, it is also about a hero who can't express his love and who yearns for the kind of freedom he had as a singleton.  

The track involving JD Chakravarthy (as the hero's boss) leaves us clueless for the most part.  So much so, we start believing that he is there as an alibi for some double meaning dialogue and party scenes.  It's only towards the pre-climax stage that this character is served a purpose.

By and by, 'Hippi' gets repetitious.  You lose the count of the number of times Devadas mourns that he has lost his peace because of his GF.  The likes of Brahmaji (as the hero's cliched 'bava') and Sudarshan (as a friend) only make the environment all the more familiar.  

Unfleshing Kartikeya's character would have enriched the proceedings a great deal in the second half.  Not once does he show love in his eyes, not once does he get to utter a profound line in the presence of his girlfriend.  On the other hand, the heroine's character seems meaty, both because of her ability to express through eyes and also because of what she gets to speak about the hero with her friend in the jewelry shop scene.

As performances go, Kartikeya defies the limitations of writing to put up an okayish act.  Digangana proves her mettle, while Jazba does well in her limited role.  JD Chakravarthy is convincing as that cool-headed boss who speaks in Telangana language.  Vennela Kishore is somewhat uninteresting.  Others don't get much space.

The songs, especially 'Yevathive', are under-rated; they are definitely very good.  The cinematography makes the frames look all the more glamorous.  

Verdict:

'Hippi' takes up a not-so-new subject and presents romantic moments, double meaning lines and glamour rather unabashedly.  The second half comes undone, the hero's character is under-written, and the climax is vapid.  But the music and other technical departments (including costumes) do an able job.