Itlu Sravani Subrahmanyam Review

"If you can't get to do it well, you should learn to enjoy doing it badly," goes Ashleigh's First Law. That seems to be the philosophy behind this one, thanks to the fact that good ideas usually get small budgets. Poori Jagannath has to make do with whatever he can, which is not much. And so here's an example of a spark of brilliance that, not fostered, dies as a spark.

Itlu Sravani Subrahmanyam has a very imaginative start and a fine story, which unfortunately peters out in the second half. Subramanyam (Ravi Teja) is an MCA graduate who has been conned of Rs. 5 lacs by an agent who promises to get him a job in Dubai. Unable to bear the loss and ashamed of going back home without a job, he decides to commit suicide.

He is about to jump off a cliff when he finds company in the form of Sravani (Tanu Rai), who, disgusted with the way her uncles are after her property, is herself planning her way to the Maker. Both decide to die together, but coming to the common conclusion that the cliff is too high, decide instead to go in for the tried and tested painless formula of popping sleeping pills.

Having made up their minds, they decide that they should first have a blast. Fate being what it is decides that it should have some fun with the couple itself; just when they pop in the pills, Subbu gets his appointment order as a software developer in a geek paradise. A lucky interference by Subbu's house owner leaves him in the hospital, where he wakes up to find that Sravani has been taken back to her home by her uncles.

Love blooms in the heart of Subbu as he remembers Sravani, so he gives a newspaper ad proclaiming his love for Sravani. Again our good old friend, Fate, interferes, and has Sravani read the ad at the altar of her wedding, and she runs away to meet her love.

She gets the shock of her life when she is misinformed that Subbu's is no longer single, and hence the whole affair is mired in confusion. Meanwhile, Subbu's mother is intent on getting him married to Sanjana (Sheena), the daughter of Subbu's rich boss.

The whole thing turns out to be quite a love triangle, with each of the three participants trying to sacrifice his/her love for the other. And when the dust settles, we find the hero bashing up Sravani's uncles and walking away with Sravani, amidst considerable melodrama.

You can't help feeling that injustice has been meted to the film; the producer should certainly have loosened his purse for this theme. It's a crying shame that a good story and some lovely screenplay has been let down due to a low budget. As the director sticks to his limits, the movie lacks in technical finesse - the photography, locations etc. aren't what you are used to, and the slickness isn't there.

Performance-wise, Ravi Teja excels. You have to give it to the guy for the way he deadpans; the unconventional looking actor makes up for his outward appearance with a real good performance. Debutantes Tanu Rai and Sheena are not very impressive, with the former acting more like a child and the latter limiting her role to baring as much as possible (to the delight of the front row patrons, we might add).

The situational comedy delights, but some scenes are grating (there always is a butt!), especially those involving L B Sriram. The music flatters to deceive - the flick begins with some decent songs and slowly degenerates to some mass numbers, culminating with a bad rip off of Madonna's Frozen.

Not the worst film in the city.