Appudala Ippudila – Review

Story:

Appudala Ippudila is a rom-com and it delivers a message as a goody.  Chaitanya (Surya Teja) is a happy-go-lucky son of Lakshmi Narayana (Suman) and Sudha.  Lakshmi Narayana owns a sweet chain in the city, but since Chaitanya doesn’t like to do his father’s work, he slights it.

In a funny turn of events, Chaitanya happens to unwittingly ask favour from a woman lawyer and thus falls in trouble.  When the lawyer and the comedian SI (Prudhviraj) seek Rs. 1 lakh in bribe, Chaitanya pays it because Rs. 1 lakh gets transferred to his account from someone he doesn’t know.  In comes Harshaki Poonacha, who claims that the amount is hers.

In the process of reluctantly arranging the due money, the hero falls in love with the heroine.  At this point, his father dies and in that emotional state of mind, Chaitanya becomes a responsible guy, intent on carrying forward the legacy of his father.  His mother tells him that the father always wanted to fulfill his debt toward four people, the ones behind his progress.  While the late father paid back three of them, he died without fulfilling the ‘runam’ to one of them.  This one is Jagdish Chandra (Naresh), a millionaire.

Now, what help does this millionaire seek from an ordinary businessman like Chaitanya?  Who is Harshika and how are the three lives intertwined?  That’s the rest of the story.

Analysis:

The director hardly had a fat storyline. The characterizations could have been better. The first half passes muster with rom-com elements thrown in. The scenes involving the hero and the heroine are elevated with some OK writing. The bonding between the father-son duo is good. Not revealing the identity of Harshika is nice.

However, the second half doesn’t have adequate padding. The scenes involving Naresh and Surya are totally bad. Siva Reddy as Naresh’s PA mistaking his boss to be a gay is funny. One doesn’t feel an emotional connect with the love story of the lead pair. There should have been some imaginative thought into their story.

Instead, the writer introduces comical characters without much seriousness. The character of Supreet, named Bublee Reddy, a land-grabbing villain, is frittered away two scenes later. A land-grabbing big-shot is sentenced to five years imprisonment for a vacuous reason. If the writing was strong in the second half, it would have helped.

Surya of Shambo Shiva Shambo fame shows some promise. He should do roles that are strictly not into this rom-com mould. His screen presence is reasonably good. Kannada actress Harshika doesn’t have the scope to perform but she has glamour. She should have been shown better. Suman is at his usual best. Naresh does some comedy. Supreet doesn’t elicit laughs.  Prabhas Seenu and Fish Venkat are OK.

Sunil Kashyap’s music impresses to an extent. The cinematography is OK. For a film made on a small budget, the technical output is good.

Bottomline:

A rom-com with a message. After a watchable first half, the second half adrifts.