Friends Review

Some things in life make you a philosopher. Marriage is said to be one of them. Soggy underwear, another of these factors. This flick joins the band of factors that inspire muse!

Thanks to Amway, we have heard enough and more about the incredible figures advertising budgets amount to. This movie seems to have been made as part of the advertising strategy of Suzuki Fiero, as the movie is literally peppered with the bikes. Only, I guess the Suzuki guys spent just a fraction on this movie of what usually goes into their slick ads.

The rest of the movie, apart from the bikes that is, is a pain in the posterior, the interior, and all the places where a pain is a pain. Meaning to extol the virtues of friendship, the director ends up making a mockery of the youth in Hyderabad.

Balu (Shivaji), Dattu (Navin), Dumbu (Harsha) and Chanti (Ali) are good friends who loiter together. This is the way bonds are forged, I guess. They loiter from the beginning to the end, joined halfway by Siddhu (Rajiv), who rounds off the number to five. Romantic interludes followed regrettably by songs, gross attempts by Chanti at acquiring a girlfriend, and a general lack of direction in their lives keeps the friends busy (duh) till the interval.

Then there is a twist when the friends are arrested and beaten up because a girl Chanti is trying to patao gets kidnapped. Siddhu bails them out and the girl mysteriously stays kidnapped as the director forgets all about her.

Balu who has dollar dreams is planning to leave for the US of A. Last minute another twist, as Siddhu meets with an accident. Inspired by the ghost-to-ghost network used in The Three Investigators, the friends collect money for an operation, and all ends... it's just not in me to use 'well'.

Actors taken from TV serials, a director whose name biased me against him (someone with a name like Bunty just can't make good movies, and Friends is the proof!) and, of course, six songs that add to the overall agony of the viewer. Do yourself a favor and take the virtues of friendship for granted. Don't let anyone tell you about them!