Mirroring the mindset of BPO Employees

Different films have come on the Telugu screen to portray the mindset and lifestyle of the present generation youth. At the same time, love, romance, pub culture, night life in the city were also portrayed in various ways in Telugu films. With several multi-national companies coming up with call centres in various metro cities, it has become very easy to get a job in these organisations, if the youth had fluency in English. These firms are also offering good pay packets to the youth as most of these call centres and BPOs work during nights. Though the theme chosen to mirror the lifestyle of the BPO employees is good, director Kanmani unable to handle the subject properly with inconsistent screenplay and immature direction.

Swathi (Priyanka) is the friend of Krishna (Vamsikrishna) since childhood. They are so good friends that Krishna once hits their teacher with a stone for chiding Swathi. After completing their education, Krishna and Swathi together apply for a job in a call centre and they get an appointment in the BPO with the help of Krishna's friend Srinivas. While Swathi stays in working women's hostel, Krishna takes shelter with his friend Srinivas. Window, Munna and Malinga are their roommates. With a handsome salary on hand, Krishna, being encouraged by his friends, takes to drinking and smoking, and starts enjoying the nightlife in pubs. With the addiction of western culture, most of the employees in the BPOs move together freely, with ultra modern dressing. Even girls also used to smoke and drink and enjoy life in pubs. Kissing, dating and romancing are quite common among some of them. Upon watching all this, Krishna also wants to date with a girl and romance with her. Swathi, who hails from the village, did not want to get into this modern world and continues to remain traditional. Being Swathi his childhood friend, Krishna convinces her to come with him to a pub. He makes advances towards Swathi and she slaps him and leaves the place in a huff. Did Swathi and Krishna patch up? What kind of situation Krishna faces later? How Krishna convinced Swathi that he is not a bad man? What his friends did to bridge the gap between Krishna and Swathi. Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

Performance:

Vamsikrishna, who played a ditched lover, in 'Happy Days', played the lead in this movie. Though he had a very good scope for performance in this film, he could not utilise the opportunity well. Especially, he needs to change his body language and showing of expressions and feelings. Priyanka, who played the childhood friend of the hero, has neither glamour nor she had any scope for performance. Even, when she got a chance to prove her performance abilities, like the pub scene where the hero tries to kiss her and she pushes him, she could not emote the scene well. Puja is the one among the lead artistes who did justice to her role to certain extent. However, the three friends of the hero in the film did an excellent job with timely comedy. Kota Srinivasa Rao and Duvvasi Mohan appear in the climax only to give a huge message to the audiences on the present generation youth, their mindset, the nature of job and their unnecessary adoption of western culture etc.

Technical:

The story penned by Yalamanchi Sridhar is okay while the cinematography by Anji is good in capturing the nightlife of the city. Lyrics are not so melodious but for a couple of songs, and the music by Sai Karthik is also not very impressive in songs. Moreover, the re-recording is very poor and it lacked the depth to elevate the mood of the scene. The narration of the subject on the screen was very poor because of the screenplay scripted by director Kanmani. There are many loose ends in the screenplay and the director unable to differentiate the merits and demerits in the adoption of western culture. Editing by Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao should be little more sharp to tighten the loose ends in screenplay.

Remarks:

Though the film is claimed to be a youthful entertainer, it may not attract the youth as the film failed to mirror the mindset of the youth. Most of the scenes in the film are well known to the youth and they are experiencing it, when they stay in metro cities. There is nothing novel in the film. At the same time, the film sends wrong signals that most of the youths working in BPOs are accustomed to luxurious life. As Kota Srinivasa Rao rightly said in the climax, one had to take the good and ignore the good. Dialogues like 'Drinking once in a while for a taste is okay but it should not become a habit' may have their adverse effect on the youth. As a whole the film is not very bad but avoiding is not wrong.

Cast: Vamsikrishna, Puja, Priyanka, Vijayanand, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Duvvasi Mohan, Melkote and others

Credits: Story and dialogues – Yalamanchi Sridhar, Music – Sai Karthik, Lyrics –Bhaskarabhatla, Kandikonda, Bandaru Danayya, Cinematography – Anji, Editing – Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao, Presents – Spark Animations Pvt Ltd., Producers – Katragadda Lokesh Dutt and Yarlagadda Venkata Ratnakumar (Yarlee), Screenplay and direction – Kanmani.

Banner: Sri Sai Balaji Arts

Released on: September 11, 2008