Movie: Chi La Sow
Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Siruni Cine Corporation
Cast: Sushanth, Ruhani Sharma, Vennela Kishore, Rohini, Anu Hasan, Rahul Ramakrishna, Vidyu Raman, Jayaprakash and others
Music: Prashanth R Vihari
Cinematography: M. Sukumar
Editor: Chota K Prasad
Art: Vinod Varma
Producers: Nagarjuna Akkineni, Bharat Kumar Malasala, Hari Pulijala and Jaswanth Nadipalli
Story, screenplay, dialogue and direction: Rahul Ravindran
Release date: Aug 03, 2018
Actor Rahul Ravindran who acted in 'Andaala Rakashasi' has turned director with 'Chi La Sow' that stars Sushanth and Ruhani Sharma as the lead pair.
The trailers have generated good buzz and added to this Annapurna Studios backing the movie made people notice this. Let's find out how Rahul Ravindran has fared as director.
Story:
Arjun (Sushanth) is 27-year-old who doesn't believe in arranged marriage. But his mother arranges an alliance and forces him to meet the girl Anjali (Ruhani Sharma). They meet at a place.
During their conversation, she narrates her other experiences at pelli choopulu and he talks about his aversion towards arranged marriage. They form a connection. An incident gets them involved in a murder case.
Arjun saves her from this case and she develops affections towards him. But a misunderstanding spoils the budding romance. What happens next?
Artistes’ Performances:
For the first time in his career, Sushanth has looked very comfortable in a role. He is good in the role of Arjun. He looks odd in the initial portions but in later sequences he is effective.
Ruhani Sharma the debutante is the main asset of the movie as she has an author backed role and she gives good performance. She expresses emotions with her eyes.
Vennela Kishore provides some laughs. Rohini as mother is natural. Rahul Ramakrishna as S.I. is just okay.
Technical Excellence:
The film mostly happens in a single night and it is filmed in a tight budget. Despite this, the photography looks adequate. Music is okay. Editing should have been tight.
Highlights:
Heroine’s story
Some subtle moments
Drawback:
Turns monotonous at places
Slow pace
Analysis
Actor Rahul Ravindran has written a simple story for his maiden directorial venture. The one-line story is: Two youngsters meet for pellichoopulu and fall in love by end of the night. In other words, an hour-long ‘pelli choopulu’ episode gets extended into hours in their life and that becomes two-hour movie.
The story (mostly) happens in a single night but he has written screenplay in a way to hold the audiences’ interest by adding a backstory for heroine and a murder mystery in the second half.
The film begins on a very wrong note and proceeds in dullest way for about 30 minutes. The real drama begins when the heroine enters into the picture. She comes to meet at his place for the ‘pelli choopulu’.
Over their conversation, she reveals her story – her mother’s condition and what would happen to her if he says no to her. This portion is handled in matured way by Rahul Ravindran. The soul of the movie is seen in this portion.
As we are warming up to the drama, the film comes to the intermission and later the director brings a silly and boring song at a restaurant and adds some boring scenes.
Thankfully, the film turns interesting again after 20 minutes and ends neatly. Where Rahul Ravindran gets it right is in the heroine’s emotional scenes but he goes completely wrong in other sequences. For a wafer-thin plot, he should have used taut narration, much-less run time.
It is also strange to see that hero's mother, who belongs to affluent section of society and talks posh English, forces his son to get married because if he prolongs it for next five years, his 'arranged market' go down?
When middle-class, rural men are getting married in 30's, it seems implausible that the modern mom forces her son about marriage at 27.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it bores…..such is the screenplay. The uneven narration and loose editing is the drawback.
On the whole, “Chi La Sow” has some good moments, some boring episodes. Second half is fairly better if you excuse the slow pace.
Bottom-line: Night Pelli Choopulu