Movie: Hrudaya Kaleyam
Director: Steven Shankar
Cast: Sampoornesh Babu, Ishika Singh, Kavya Kumar, Mahesh Kathi, Rajesh Sompalli, Krishna Aditya and Sai Rajesh
Rating: **1/2
Watching “Hrudaya Kaleyam” in a way reminds a viewer of how outdated Telugu films are in the recent past where formulae are ripped apart to death and the undying thirst for newness is never really quenched. This N Sai Rajesh directorial celebrates and mocks at the stereotypes in the existing industry. The pre-release publicity certainly helps the case for the viewer to accept it openly. Intentionally casting a modest looking, pot-bellied male lead called Sampoornesh Babu who, as part of his character traits is in awe of his personality, the narrative uses this satirical tone as a tool to drive its main intention.
He is the man that every girl imagines to be her ideal dance partner in those mushy dream-sequences. He is the same man who with a single punch from his fist and a kick off his legs can threaten the daylights of the baddies. Without an educational background, he creates a ‘samputer’ which runs with the help of hydro-electricity, thanks to a water tap that’s embedded into it, borrowing references from the Vedas as well, also reminding one of Rajinikanth’s Robot introduction and prepares an artificial heart for a transplant operation using chemical compounds in his so-called laboratory using a bunch of live wires.
The heroine as a mark of sacrifice donates her liver to the former who is brought dead to the hospital. It doesn’t merely end there. For the last time, he escapes death too hearing his lady love’s call for the savior act which he heroically fulfills by jumping out of his own funeral pyre. He lifts his antagonist Black Mamba with a single hand and the earth makes space for him to be dumped off its surface. None of this is ever meant to be taken seriously though.
The heroine Neelaveni is fondly called Neelu by the hero. She calls the latter as ‘current’ for being the electrician when the fuse in her house doesn’t work. As a mark of tribute to Bommarillu, instead of hitting their heads suggesting the development of horns in the future, they purposely rub their hands against each other on their way to depict that it’s a mark of love.
The film which for a fact has a story certainly scales a level beyond Sudigadu, which had similar intentions but was never more than the sum of its occasionally appealing parts. However, even if it entertains on a continuous note with the one-liners targeting specific actors on a lighter vein, there’s the brash disrespect in the guise of its parody setting that it gives to the visual medium with some outrageously shot sequences without proper basis. It is a known fact by now that the joke is indeed on themselves but you arrive at a point where you just can’t take it anymore. The climactic shots help you end with a smile though. In an excuse of being a film, Hrudaya Kaleyam tends to go overboard in its ideas. Mahesh Kathi’s performance is what you can probably take home. An output whose pun is seriously intended but makes you go out of the theatres wondering about what you just saw. Neither detestable nor loveable, it’s a film during and after which you wouldn’t want to think much.
Review by Srivathsan N, who had originally written it for Cinegoer.net
