It is always fun to look back on the inexorable passage that you and time walked holding hands together like unknown accomplices. And in the soft-focus reversible telescope of time yesterday's mammoth mountains are today's mirthful molehills.
And so, Naa Autograph, at one level, is the celebration of the warm afterglow of nostalgia. At another, it is the rites of passage of growing up.
It is about the life and times of Seenu (Ravi Teja) and his unsure relationship with four different women at different times.
The film begins with Seenu unspooling the events that comprise his life as he gets back to his hometown to distribute cards for his wedding. As he walks down the dusty streets, he, concomitantly, walks down the lane of his life. And what do you find? His innocent school friends, his `loud' and uncouth school master, the naivete of first love and the unmistakable surprise and sensation of the first kiss. But when he visits them now, everything is changed --- his first love Vimala (Mallika) is happily settled in bucolic domestic bliss, some of his friends have moved on in life and everything else is washed away in the ineluctable torrent of time.
The he moves on to the second pit stop in life --- Kerala (his father being in postal department was in a transferable job) where he had fallen in love with his classmate Lathika (Gopika). The love affair had come unstuck in the heat of parental opposition. And Lathika is forced is to marry some one else. Seenu, on his revisit, finds Lathika a widow. He is crestfallen and wants to call off his wedding and marry her.
Back in Hyderabad, from he had started off his journey in rewind, his friend, philosopher and guide ---- the third girl in his life ----- Divya (Bhumika), however, advises him against canceling his marriage.
The film ends with all the three `other' women in Seenu's life presenting a happy picture at his wedding with Sandhya (Kanika).
For Ravi Teja, long used to doing rambunctious, rugged roles, this mushy character is something of a change. Though he doesn't get the minute nuances of the character right, he still manages to come out unscathed.
Almost all the heroines get more than pass mark in roles that have life in them. Mallika, as the swarthy village girl, is an inspired choice. Gopika, as the chirpy Keralite madly in love with Seenu, is infectiously vivacious. She has an author-backed story and she has proved more than adequate. Kanika, as the girl who eventually marries Seenu, has nothing much to do. All the three have done the same role in the Tamil original.
So that leaves us with Bhumika who, as the poised, smart and dignified Divya, is apt. There is an understated elegance to Bhumika and she uses that to good effect in this role.
The music by Keeravani is inspired in places but a let down in some others.
Director Gopal Reddy has played it safe by sticking to the Tamil original dutifully. But in retrospect, one feels that he could have taken some chances and worked around with a more taut script to suit the taste of local audiences. The pace though perfect for the story of this kind may not be ideally suited for the action-a-minute-loving Telugu fans.
The strength of Cheran's original was its earthy nativity. Somehow that is also lacking in this remake. In the end, there is lot of slice of life but very little spice of life.
Autograph was from Cheran's heart. Naa Autograph is just a smudgy rubber stamp of the original.
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