Oka Criminal Prema Katha Review

A story of this sort could have been told from the point of view of the girl as well as the boy but the director chooses to tell it solely from the former’s point of view mainly because he wanted to excite the audience’s interest now and then by presenting a different aspect (exclusively) of the girl, whose unspeakable trauma causes her to think violently and destructively.  The boy’s inner life has not got any place in the story, so an intense line or two of the hero speaking to himself before executing the girl’s morbid plan would not have been out of place.

It’s a simple story where the girl’s character reveals surprises as the film progresses.  The proceedings are, here and there, treated with a touch of melancholy.  The crime angle is there waiting to be introduced with a jolt, and when the scene plays out finally, one feels as much for the victim seeking revenge as for the instrument emotively used by the victim.  Perhaps, the director consciously wanted to leave it to the wisdom of the audience to judge whether the hapless, traumatized girl was right in using someone else to seek her revenge.  Given that the average woman’s helplessness and victimhood is spoken about in the film, maybe she is perfectly justified in wanting to demand the ‘sacrifice’ from that special one.

OCPK is the story of a village lad and his muse.  The village backdrop lends the story a raw flavor that films of an earlier generation were known for.  Even when it is the college campus and three or four youngsters in the college and their flirtatious, middle-aged lecturer, the film doesn’t lose its rural tinge, with the female characters talking mostly like girls from a rural background.

After asking him to move to Vizag, Bindu (Priyanka Pallavi) is recalcitrant as she tries to avoid him.  Seenu (Manoj Nandan), now working as a canteen boy, is lost for the reason why she is behaving like a stranger.  Finally when she begins to cosy up to him, the girl’s peculiar side is revealed.  What is making her seethe with rage?  Why is she demanding the unthinkable from her boy friend?  Answers to these are revealed in the second half.

Made on a shoestring budget, this film is not a visual treat by any standard.  Technically, it’s quite mediocre but the narration manages to make a mark.  At a time when even supposedly pro-women films (like Tammareddy Bharadwaj’s Prathighatana) parade profanity and obscenity under the pretext of exposing the vulgarity and mean-mindedness of lecherous men, this film is praiseworthy in that bold scenes have a meaningful presence.  One feels sorry for the girl seducing her boy (with a cause in mind) in a desperate, stressful situation rather than be titillated.  When she turns welcoming of her victimiser’s savage behavior, she invites our sympathy even as she derives a pathological delight by mocking at the victimiser’s lack of ‘capacity’.  There are some filmmakers like Maruthi who present their female characters with a dose of irreverence – so even when they are angry with a man, they talk in unconventional terms like how the victimizer can be dealt toughly.  There is that anger against liquor, the ubiquitous dis-inhibitor of pre-existing aggressive tendencies in men.  The girl mocking at his paralysed father’s habit is scorching.

The climax where the boy dreams of speaking to the girl is a good idea, and the line “Aa roju kooda nuvu na mohanni choodaledu” is ironic and heart-rending at once.

There are some routing scenes like the boy’s friend brainwashing him about the “Gajini rogam” of girls.  Then there is that boring Mahesh Babu parody.

The songs are insipid and seem to come too often, especially in the first half.

Priyanka Pallavi doesn't look vulnerable enough to seem to fit the bill but as the film progresses, she proves to be a good choice.  Manoj Nandan acts well.

Verdict: A film that works for its honesty and creative story-telling.

Rating: 2/5