Ide Na Modati Premalekha Review

The recent obsession of films for being centered on a college campus continues, and so does the outcome pattern. With a story creaking from old age and direction reflective more of an undertaker than a doctor, Ide Naa Modhati Premalekha narrowly misses being the worst picture of the year. If released worldwide, it would have been nominated for the Raspberry Awards hands down - and considering the number of bad movies released this year, it is unlikely that it would have won, taking away that opportunity for glory, too.

Abhiram (Jayaram) alias Abhi is an orphan who supports himself - pretty lavishly - by teaching dance at the college he studies in. One day he bumps (literally) into Anjali (Rimmi Sen) at Birla Mandir, and instantly falls in love with her.

As cinematic luck would have it, Anjali joins the very college and becomes his friend. Abhi is bursting to tell her all about his love for her, and is persuaded by his three useless friends to write a love letter. When the letter is about to be delivered, Abhi's friends notice an incident in which Anjali expresses her distaste for love affairs and explains her strong belief in arranged marriages.

So they ensure that the letter doesn't reach Anjali, and ghostwrite a reply to Abhi on behalf of Anjali in which she reciprocates his love on the condition that he never mentions it to anybody, and also says that their love should never be discussed even among the two of them till she gets her parents to agree to the alliance. A lame excuse that Abhi would have committed suicide if his love had been rejected is concocted to explain this foolish behavior of his friends.

Abhi, blissfully unaware of all these developments, is on cloud number 09, and considers Anjali his lover. As the letter demands, though, he behaves just as a friend.

As time passes by, Anjali, as expected, contradicts her own statements and falls in love with Abhi. She is about to break the news when she is informed of an alliance for her arranged by her parents. Being a traditionally bought up girl, she bows her head to her parents' wishes and conveys it to Abhi. And after some heart stopping, mind numbing, spine chilling dramatic moments, the couple are united.

The movie sucks from the starting to the finish line. The storyline is a wild figment, and most of the scenes contradict themselves. The director does not take care of the small but important details that go into making a film a good product. Errors abound - the girl portrayed as very traditional in nature is cavorting all around in skin tights and minis, bunches of goons drop in out of nowhere just so the hero can show off his gym-grown body (and they don't even get beaten up professionally!)... the works.

The debutantes don't do anything that might push them even by accident into any kind of limelight. Jayaram keeps grinning like he were being paid by the millisecond to do it. And the current Tollywood infatuation with Bong girls continues in the form of Rimmi Sen, who does nothing that might cause you to accord her any more interest than you would the "make millions sitting at home" mails. Character actors like Sivaji, Chalapathi Rao etc stick to their descriptions and do a decent job.

A lot of muck is passed up as comedy in the name of college and youth - Bramhanandam is made to look like he ought to retire, and L B Sriram would do better sticking to his original job as a storywriter. Some of the situations depicted as funny are really distasteful, and there might be people who might take offence at such revolting depictions. And the music is great garage stuff.

This is one of those movies that you can keep criticizing for hours and still have some.