Repallelo Radha Review

This film's set in a rural joint family household - and this grounding should exonerate us from having to detail all the intricate relationships in the family! Everybody is someone else's aunt or uncle or cousin... it would have been really confusing but for the lead characters being well etched out and the entire cast (except the lead pair) consisting of accomplished actors.

Subba Rao (Satyanarayana) is the head of the family, and though he's very loving and friendly, his word is law. His city-dweller brother Keshav's son Madhav, just come back from the US (where else?), is the homely type. The director goes to ridiculous extents to convince us of what a nice guy he is.

Madhav goes to his village to meet his beloved uncle Gummadi. He, of course, sees the beautiful Radha (Deeksha) singing a song, and pretty soon, it's love. Everybody's happy and wants to get them married. And this is where any semblance of meaning in the story ends. From here on, the director labors like Hercules to squeeze every last drop from the story. The result - a movie which drags longer than the Queen's bridal gown.

The marriage plans are dropped for a really pathetic reason - Madhav wants settle in the village but Subba Rao wants him to take his daughter to the city so that she will have a comfortable life. Tempers flare and that's that. Huh?! We can only smile and say that only in our Telugu films will such logic hold.

If that is not enough, Madhav challenges Subba Rao to live in the city for a month (read - hardworking director trying to drag the story for the next hour). There is also the quintessential loudmouthed aunt who appears from nowhere. Basic aim in life - create rift in family, get son to marry heiress and have all the property. Another exhausting hour later, the movie ends. Do we have to tell you how?

Madhav and Radha - I'm floored by the originality. The lead actor, newcomer Dilip (face seen in many ads, can't place exactly which), is pathetic looking. His feeble attempts at histrionics take him nowhere. Shucks, he doesn't even manage to look cute. Deeksha, also a newcomer, at least scores over him there - she looks really attractive. That is, until she starts dancing.

All the character actors do their thing really well and the setting and behavioral characteristics of a large joint family are well essayed. The songs are just passable, even with the exotic foreign locales. All in all, an I-have-nothing-better-to-do-and-time-to-kill movie.