Pelli Pusthakam Review

Portraying the heroine as a girl whose behaviour borders on the whimsical takes rare sensibilities on the part of the director.  More so if the whimsical girl is a near-floozy character who doesn't mind having a secret (if asexual) affair even while living with the husband, with whom she even once gets romantic enough to plant a meaning-laden kiss on his cheeks.  The complexity gets that much more difficult to depict.

But, trust Ramakrishna to keep things as awkward as possible, kissing a goodbye to sensitivity/subtlety, going for an in-your-face portrayal of his character's immaturity, thereby successfully making us feel that the girl likes a guy for being handsome/hot, more than for any other reason.  Days before accepting him, she says, "Rahul smart untadu."

The director seems to think that Rahul Ravindran and Nithi Taylor are two brilliant actors whose kiddish acts can make the audience understand the writer's intentions with precision.  Thus, when Rahul acts like an Amul boy merrily waiting for the first sexual experience of his life on the day of marriage, we wonder whether the director wants to tell us that the bava and the maradalu are, for all the ogling behaviour they happily showcase, children at heart who are not yet intent to have sex with each other, or  make us simply laugh without searching for a deeper meaning?

What kind of a husband leaves for Malaysia without his wife accompanying him for the honeymoon?  If he knows the girl ran away from him deliberately, what purpose does it serve being thousands of miles away and making anxious calls to friends in Hyderabad?

What kind of a director shows his heroine fall in love with a guy without writing a scene in which they both are engaged in some meaningful talk?  How else would we know why the girl fell for a guy after her marriage? She may see nothing in a guy more than his beauty, but neither the man she is in love with is shown to sweeping her off feet even once.

What kind of a director thinks that Nagineedu can be relied upon to pull off comedy, melodrama and a mix of other conceivable emotions as if he were as big as Prakash Raj?

Now the boy expresses shock at his maradalu falling in line with her archaic grandpa and accepting to marry the bava.  In the next frame, we see the bava in awe of the maradalu's bride avatar, as if he were mesmerized by her stunning looks, if not at the thought of having a beautiful wife for the rest of his life.  A blasphemous song, that must make the fans of the original Pelli Pustakam song squirm in their seats, plays in the background.

The Amul boy and his bride behave like drunkards or retards or both..  Until the camera of Foxx Sports, telecasting LIVE the country's most important match, captures the love affair of the wife with Cherry, with a miraculous special focus on the girl and an earth-shaking discussion between the two captains.

Then there is Cherry, about whose Greek God-like looks (ROFL!) every girl in the film is seen talking.  Every woman, except the ladies in Nagineedu's family, lusts one guy or another, so much so the Greek God is forced to ask three of them, "Do you think I am a porn star?"

Verdict: With nothing to write home about the performances or the technical aspects, Pelli Pustakam falls flat.

Rating: 1.5 / 5