Movie: Iddarammayilatho
Director: Puri Jagannadh
Cast: Allu Arjun, Catherine Tresa, Amala Paul, Kaajal Vashisht, Brahmanadam, Nassar, Subbaraju, Rao Ramesh, Srinivasa Reddy and Devshi Khanduri
Rating: **
Allu Arjun is popularly known as Stylish Star, and this explains why most of his films reek of style, and lack matter. However, his latest offering “Iddarammayilatho” is so stylish that within few minutes into the film, you find yourself searching for substance.
If I were to describe the experience of watching this film in one line, here’s it – it’s like covering a torn innerwear with a highly expensive tuxedo. The torn innerwear here refers to the core of the plot, while the expensive tuxedo is the stylish presentation of the film.
When Akanksha (Catherine Tresa), daughter of a union minister (Rao Ramesh) moves into a new house in Spain, where she has gone for her higher studies, she stumbles upon a diary. As she starts reading it, she comes to learn that it chronicles the warm love story of Sanju and Komali, played by Arjun and Amala respectively.
However, as Akanksha begins to get attached to the story in the diary, it comes to an abrupt halt leaving unanswered questions. Piqued by curiosity, she tracks Sanju to discover more.
Puri’s films have begun to deteriorate with time and having seen “Iddarammayilatho”, we wish his worst days are over and hope to see a better film soon. It’s painful to believe that someone who was lauded for making a slick crime-thriller such as “Pokkiri” has resorted to making films that are neither entertaining nor commercially plausible.
The love story is set in Barcelona, allowing the audiences to get lost in the picturesque snapshots of the beautiful city captured through the celluloid of cinematographer Amol Rathod. Audiences fail to realize that a place as gorgeous as Spain is equally captivating when seen through naked eyes. You don’t need a specialist to capture the beauty of a place that’s already breathtakingly fine-looking.
One needs to understand that even the best of the cinematographer can’t beautify a shabbily looking street in some corner of India.
Puri’s films also pave way to several pointless questions such as why would a girl from India, of all the places, travel to Spain to learn classical music. What is funnier is that she comes to learn music from Brahmanadam, a popular comedian in Telugu cinema. If the director’s intention was to evoke laughter out of this music episode, then it kills the purpose of Amala’s visit to the place to learn music. Similarly, there are so many instances where you’re left to pull out the hair from your scalp while trying to figure out answers to several questions.
We know Allu Arjun is a better dancer and a champion at executing most difficult stunt sequences, but isn’t he an actor at the first place? When do we actually get to see him act? Arjun shines in his role with his terrific screen presence, but hardly do we see him act.
Here is another Telugu film with two beautiful heroines; one is in fact drop dead gorgeous, but both hardly with any scope for acting. Amala Paul stunned everybody with her debut performance in Tamil film “Myna”, but since then, she has hardly proven her mettle as an actor. Puri has a weakness for introducing extremely sensuous women who are extremely dumb to perform. Please add Catherine Tresa to that list of actresses.
If you call this entertainment, then probably the standards of your definition of entertainment is flawed.
This review was originally written for IANS news wire