Movie: Chalo
Rating: 3/5
Banner: Ira Creations
Cast: Naga Shaurya, Rashmika Mandanna, Achyuth Kumar, Naresh, Viva Harsha, Raghu Babu, Pragathi, Praveen, Satya, Sudharshan,
Rajendran and others
Music: Sagar Mahati
Cinematography: Sai Sreeram
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateshwara Rao
Producer: Usha Malpuri
Written and direction: Venky Kudumula
Release date: Feb 02, 2018
“Chalo” is Naga Shaurya’s latest love story and Kannada heroine Rashmika’s debut film in Telugu. The film caught everyone’s attention thanks to its cool trailers and good promotions.
Let’s find out its merits and demerits.
Story:
Hari (Naga Shaurya), an engineering student, loves getting into fights from childhood. Exasperated by his love for getting involved in brawls, his father sends him to Thiruppuram, a village near Andhra-Tamilnadu border that is divided into half by the Tamil and Telugu people. Neither of the groups cross into each other's territory, but their children study at the engineering college in the village.
Hari joins this college and falls for Keerthana (Rashmika), who happens to be the daughter of the head of Tamil group. Not knowing that she is his daughter, Hari gets the head of Tamil group insulted by the head of Telugu group.
Now, how will Hari seek the hand of Keerthana, what problems would he go through?
Artistes’ Performances:
Naga Shaurya has put on weight slightly and looks handsome. As a college student, he is a good fit.
Kannada heroine Rashmika is cute. Sathya and Vennela Kishore dominate the show with their comic performances.
Raghu Babu, Naresh and Praveen are okay. Posani makes an impression as college lecturer in two scenes.
Technical Excellence:
Movie is shot with good production values and it has been shot in good locations that are beautiful. Sai Sreeram’s camera work is appreciable in songs. Sagar Mahati has come up with two good songs. Dialogues are pretty good.
Highlights:
Comedy dialogues
Sathya and Vennela Kishore
First half
Drawback:
Climax
Lack of emotional connect
Analysis
A hero falling for the daughter of rival group or hero loving the sister/daughter of his family’s enemy is not a new theme. A boy and a girl falling in love despite the animosity between their two villages is a plotline that we had seen many a time. Naga Shaurya’s latest love story “Chalo” is almost similar.
The only difference the new director has made is that here the village is divided into half and each half belong to a different state. And the reason for hostility between these villages dates back to 1953. Other than this angle, the story of “Chalo” is pretty much as old as “Peddarikam”, “Bala Ramakrishnulu” or “Don Seenu”.
However, new director Venky Kudumula begins this familiar story in a funny manner.
The director starts the story with how the hero has developed love for fights and creates scenes to move the plotline to this 'fictional village that is divided between two states’. From here, the story turns comical. Once the hero enters into Thiruppuram, the fun factor begins.
The director brings in situations with good writing, infuses nice comedy scenes and adds routine-but-funny college/ hostel episodes. By and large, the first half of the movie moves in a funny way without boring us.
Post-interval, the director loses steam because by then the college comedy has already been overused, and the story part (which reminds us of some scenes from the second half of Trivikram’s S/o Sathyamurthy) moves in a predictable direction.
When the film slumbers into boredom, like his guru Trivikram, the director suddenly introduces a reliable top comedian (here Vennela Kishore as Param). So, this saves the movie. In the penultimate episodes, Vennela Kishore’s comedy saves the film.
The movie’s strength is its funny dialogues, Sathya’s entertaining performance, Choodagane song in the first half, and post-interval it is Vennela Kishore’s comedy.
On the flipside, the romance between Naga Shaurya and Rashmika is too bland. The romantic episodes give us a feeling of déjà vu. For a love story, this is a huge drawback. The comedy portions in the second half should have been better. And it lacks emotional connect. This makes it a flimsy romantic comedy.
On the whole, “Chalo” works in parts courtesy comic portions and dialogue writing. It is fairly time pass movie if you excuse the predictability in the later portions.
Bottom-line: Border Romance