Chalaki Review

It is a cheeky idea. To carry it off, the A-rated jokes that inevitably grow out of the idea must not be vulgar, and yet, must be of the everyday kind (read, relatable to our cultural set-up). Basically, it is an idea that'd shrivel to embarrassing proportions if in the wrong hands.

Luckily, Chalaki doesn't go all the way down. Considering that it isn't exactly a top-of-the-heap production, is surprisingly an engaging watch, at least for the things it does get right.

The admittedly intriguing concept of watching a lone guy set foot in a sea of women in a girls' college, is the basis of the first half of the flick. Subba Rao (Aditya Babu) has been kicked out of every college in town thanks to his roughneck ways. His mother is a teacher at an all-women institution whose principal (Sangeetha) is considering converting it to a co-educational place.

Subba Rao is admitted to the college, whose student sorority has its own share of "politics". In any case, Subba Rao is thoroughly ragged by his college mates, and the leg-pulling goes well beyond the risque.

He and the tomboyish and bubbly Subbalakshmi (Roma) fall in love over shyly exchanged glances and much hinting business, but soon, Subbalakshmi must get engaged to someone else. How the two of them get together forms the rest of the story.

The movie doesn't aim for all that much - this one is a rather run-of-the-mill college romance eventually. It does realize its largely simple ambitions pretty well, going by the fact that you're not too repelled by the proceedings. The predictability of the plot is not really an issue actually, if you look at the movie the right way.

Plenty of A-rated comedy makes up the fun in the all-girl setting, which interestingly enough, almost seems like a satire on eve-teasing and the exploitation of men by women. Sadly, the second half degrades into a plain vanilla love story, generating lesser and lesser interest as it moves on.

Aditya Babu - Arya 2's producer, whose foray into hero-world began in Kannada, and who already has a fans association to his credit - needs classes in diction and classes in acting, and if push comes to shove, also needs to stick to just producing films.

The heroine, thankfully, is pretty good. There's visible energy between the lead pair, though, making the romance easy on the eye. The rest of the cast may as well have sleepwalked through the movie, given the banal roles dished out.

Interestingly, for those who care, the music isn't a complete dud - the title song, high on zing, is quite a saving grace. In any case, the technical values show that there's been a fair bit of money spent on this production.

Watch this one if you're on a movie marathon or something - it won't hurt much.