Fidaa

Why do we fall in love? Can you define that why? As many say it is easy to define how and when but why is still a mystery. Not many makers understand that ‘Why’ like Mani Ratnam and Sekhar Kammula, yet these masters seem to be repeating themselves over and over again. Until, their ‘Why’ and ‘how’ manages to impress us, we can’t complain too much too. So, what did Fidaa manage to do? Does Sekhar Kammula leave his mark on us like he did during Anand and Godavari? Let’s see …

Plot : Bhanumathi (Sai Pallavi), a village belle, from Bhansuvada, Telangana, is highly talkative and active. She doesn’t like a dull moment in life. Varun (Varun Tej), who is an NRI, active but not as bright as Bhanumathi, enters into her life. Both of them slowly fall for each other and get used to them being side by side all the time. Bhanumathi doesn’t have any high aims but to look after her father. On the other hand, Varun is ambitious to become a good doctor in US. Both have to give up their dreams to unite for other’s sake. Who will make the ultimate sacrifice and why? Watch it on screen to know more …

Performances : Varun Tej even in his short career, managed to become typecast and he needs to find a role that can expose his hidden talents as soon as he can. As a guy who talks in a low voice and a friend, who is tall, well-built and well-mannered, he is playing the similar kind of characters in very film of his. Sai Pallavi is one actress who is on the cusp of becoming a one time wonder with Malar character as she did not accept many films after that. But in her debut Telugu film, the actress dubbed for her character on her own and she managed to entertain us. In fact, it is her performance and character that makes the movie refreshing and Telugu Cinema found a new actress who can carry a film like Nithya Menen and Samantha. Yes, she is that good. All others get very routine roles and Sekhar Kammula manages to give them enough space to shine in one or the other scene. They all contribute to making the tale more realistic and we can say this, they make the movie more than the lead actors themselves.

Technicalities : Taking a wafer thin line plot line and trying to make a saleable film out of it or make it a beautiful treat on screen is the trait of directors like Sekhar Kammula and he again tries to deliver a good enjoyable love story. The only problem with this movie is that the writing is too weak and we fail to understand the major conflict and the drag behind that. May be the writer in him felt, it is real but the conclusion makes it as unreal as it can get. We can smell the conclusion right from the beginning and the ‘How’ of the romantic tale is intelligently dealt with. But the ‘Why’ misses the mark with repetitive scenes that doesn’t establish the complete hatred or the love behind that hatred effectively. One tends to feel like watching an Old DVD without fast forward button to jump to the interesting part. The drag could have been avoided had the writer in Kammula could see his old script Anand and write the new script, especially, the second hour where he desperately tries to prove it is a LOVE – HATE – LOVE story. We come out during the interval with delightful smile but end up sighing with relief at the climax point.

That’s how bad, the writing falls short of ideas. Marthand K. Venkatesh is a well known editor but his edit for this romance doesn’t suit the story as much as he thought it would. The movie needed to make some sense at some point but it fails to do so, because of the dragged conflict portion in the second hour. Vijay C Kumar, lenses try to give a visual excellence to the story but the movie fails to give him enough scope in the form of the a story narrative. we have to applaud his work in showing the villages but the VFX work in the US episodes fails to impress us at all. Jeevan Raju gives an apt BG score and Shakti Kanth gave two good songs for the movie. The picturisation of the songs disappoints us though.

Analysis : The movie had some good moments to fall back on but it fails to ignite any kind of emotion in the conclusion. We need to get into the story and enjoy the emotions as the characters go through the conflict and realisation. But here the conflict has no emotional core and we fail to give it any attention as it drags on. The major hindrance of this romance is the writing of the maker and we fail to understand what made him go for a repetitive in this love story. As it starts out with a fresh character and approach it slow falls into cliches and we lose interest too. But you can watch it once for the character of Bhanumathi.

Rating : 3/5

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