Romeo Review

Romeo discovers someone in his hopeless life.  This someone, he believes, might have been put in his path by Paddu.  The first conversation of any length that he picks up with her is about 'lust at first sight', believed to be an RGV-ism but it's an 'ideology' only parroted by the filmmaker.  See something awkward about it?  A divine coincidence may have happened to him, something which may give him back life and love, but we see her liberally quoting from RGV's tweets.  That's the tragedy about having a surreal point being subject to the inanity of Puri-ism.

Sairam Shankar plays Kittu (inexplicably addressed as 'sir' by someone who is better in every respect), this Kittu is admittedly (but not seemingly) in a depression for a very strong reason.  When he sees Samantha (Adonica) in Italy, his face undergoes a structural change for 30 seconds.  He falls after her and goes about scheming to make her fall for him.  At one stage, he even molests her publicly after playing mischief with her.

He even steals her passport.  As the film progresses, Kittu emotes less and less intensely, even as various guest appearances (read Ravi Teja, Subbu Raju, Ali, Jayasudha and even Naga Babu) reduce the film to a caricature (if it was not already one).

It's interval time and Kittu has to give an explanation for his pathological behaviour.  As he gives it, the audience can't make out whether he is not playing yet another prank.  "I used to sleep in her house, she used to sleep in my house," an emotion-filled Sairam Shankar says, sounding almost sarcastic, thereby unintentionally but successfully giving even non-voyeurs a reason to smile for the first time in 58 minutes.

Meanwhile, Samantha scarcely behaves like a girl in trouble.  Every time she is pestered by the Romeo, she looks like a girl who has been asked by her parents to cut short her trip and be back 2 days early.  With Sairam Shankar sounding ridiculous, emoting ridiculous, and with Adonica almost giving an embarrassing performance, Jayasudha is brought in to finally convince the audience that something serious is happening in their lives.

RGV's oeuvre amply exhibits the pitfalls of uselessly trying to make stars out of mediocre artists.  The way Adonica is given a lion's share in the film makes us wonder if the director wanted to do an RGV by trying to make a star out of Adonica.  She tries to look younger than her age, but despite all the efforts can't help herself from looking the eldest Juliet conceivable by any tragedian.  Her character's services to Italian tourism industry may go in vain, tragically.  Even with Chinmayee's dubbing, she is not convincing.  When she is made up to look like a Telugu girl she looks like Richa, unfortunately, Gangopadhyaya.

Verdict: Romeo is all about pseudo-romance, pseudo-love, pseudo-surrealism.

Rating: 1/5