Everything started with a road trip...

Story: Movie opens with the introduction of hero Naga Chaithanya who is a college graduate, runs into a fight in support of helping his friend who is in love. He says that he wants to tell his kids how he started his first fight... to make it memorable he punches them so hard that they won't come back to senses for a short period. He has two sisters at home and always protective of them. Chaithu says that he is not good at love as he has failed twice. His friends narrate his second and third love stories. Second one leaves him that Chaithu did not held her hand in the entire date. Learning a lesson from that, on his next date with his third love he tries holding the girl's hand while watching a movie in a theater... she leaves him that he is too advancing. Confused by the girls' attitudes he distances himself from them. BTW, Chaithu's first love is his Royal Enfield bike.

Once his sister Maithreyi's friend Leela (Manjima Mohan) drops by at their home for a casual party. Chaithu falls in love with her immediately. Leela hails from Maharastra and stays in a hostel. For her final thesis/project she plans to stay Maitreyi's home as they both are working together and also have plan to become future scriptwriter duo for movies. Leela's parents also visit Maithreyi's home to check on everything before leaving Leela at their home.

This is when some sweet nothings start between Chaithu and Leela. Chaithu plans to go on a South India bike trip along with his friend without letting parents know about it. He shares his plan with Leela and tells her that he may have to go alone if his friend drops the idea of joining him. To help him out Leela gets ready to join him for South India trip on bike. This is when the actual story starts... and rest of the movie is all about what happened to them and their love story with some interesting twist at interval block and racy thriller action plot in the second half.

Performances: Naga Chaithanya performed the hero's role with ease. Somehow for couple of songs singer's voice did not match his body language and his expressions in those songs were really bad. But other than that he performed the role of a fresh graduate with ease. In one particular emotional scene he will blow you out with his performance... never knew he could emote so well. This is Manjima Mohan's debut movie. She did really good both in romantic sweet nothings as well as emotional scenes. Time will tell if she can beat Jessie's (Samantha of Ye Maaya Chesave movie) craze. In other prominent role singer Baba Sehegal acted as Maharashtrian cop who cannot follow English but tries to cover it up with funny words.

Behind The Screen: Story, Screenplay, and Direction are by Gautham Vasudevan Menon. Director made his mark in the industry with some love stories and action films earlier. In this one he blend both love and action elements. Gautham Menon has a unique signature of showing relation between lovers and this movie is no exception. Though some may complain about slow narration in the first half... his poetic way of showing the interactions between hero and heroine scenes are good. Music by A.R.Rahman is a let down. Word of caution about this... I did not like his Ye Maaya Chesaave album too. I'm kind of a person who likes music on first 2-3 hearings and if the tune isn't catchy in those 2-3 hearings then I do not listen to the album. Some may like the music but not my cup of tea. Singer's voice did not match Chaithu and looked odd on screen for couple of songs.

Commercial Analysis: It's a confusion to categorize the genre of this movie. First half and second half are totally contrasting. If the first part is slow on narration and poetic with Gautham Menon's signature second was so racy with unpredictable twists and turns and too many cinematic liberties will spoil the plot. From theme wise it's a blend of Ye Maaya Chesave and Raaghavan (both are his earlier movies) and not as good as them. Overall a one time watch for those who like Gautham Menon's style of direction.

Rating: 2.75/5

- Raghu Chitturi