Seetharamula Kalyanam Lankalo Review

Script or no script, there's something presumably appealing - to directors - about scenes wherein a person's head/body is thrashed against a surface that's prickled with sundry metal projections. And something apparently comforting in fifty greasy deadpan goons hanging around an ageing Rayalaseema villain.

And until our directors muster the nerve to soak in another formula and make it second nature, we'll keep lapping all that up for the next decade. Right?

Formula is a feature that works when a film takes cover under superstardom and hit music. Seetharamula Kalyanam is the kind of film that takes cover under formula so hackneyed it makes the lead pair seem like seasoned performers.

Chandu (Nitin) romancing his college junior Nandu (Hansika) for the entire first half. So you have him breaking bones of those who leer at her, spouting hefty dialogues about how exams have supplementaries and love does not, and winning her over. In the second half, he heads to Seema to outwit her lusting barbarian of a suitor, the son of a faction leader.

This is not a film that contains even a single inspired moment, shot, song or dialogue, or flashes of creativity in any form - or even aspires for something on those lines. The aim's pretty low and functional, and the target audience a blurred cloud that the dart will most surely hit.

There's not much going for the plot of the movie, but if you forgave the bits of mindless limb-hacking and the general dullness of the script, it's the comedy that keeps the second half going. If you laugh easy, that is. Brahmanandam plays a lawyer who's made to think Chandu and his sidekick (Ali) are live deities who've appeared in his dream and who keep appearing in real life. It's the kind of humour that's the best that filmmakers of this stratum can come up with.

The kind of attempt at humour that might even have been charming if the villain hadn't peed onto his henchmen below while being gagged and strapped to a chandelier.

Nitin's been styled decently and acts pretty well. It's a pity he hasn't gotten a better deal in his career - still, it isn't too late, since he's unlikely to show signs of ageing in the near future. Hansika is unremarkable, given that she's given a non-role as usual. Put together the two make a pretty nice pair, and probably do enough to the film in terms of star value. Jayaprakash Reddy, Brahmanandam, Ali and Subbaraju make for some lively moments. Venu Madhav is available for a fleeting moment, though.

Insipid cinematography and pedestrian music don't exactly offend you, but keep the film floating at the level beyond which it refuses to rise and to which a lot of audiences would have to sprain their backs bothering to stoop to.

Watch Seetharamula Kalyanam... if you must, but we hope you're going in with your brain half-numb already.