| Year | 2000 |
|---|
Love as a theme never seems to bore our directors. It is the base of almost all our films. In such a scenario, it takes extremely creative and skilful director to showcase love and its attendant emotions in a novel light.
Alas, Jonnalagadda Srinivasa Rao, the director of Valliddaru Okkate, does not seem to possess that.
The film is quite simply a tedious yarn on two lovers standing steadfast for their convictions against predictable parental opposition. And all is well that ends well...tedious yawn would be more like it.
Kishore (Tripuraneni Kishore) gets drawn to Sravani (Renuka Menon) the moment he sets his eye on her. And she also reciprocates the love. So what is the hitch? Surprise, surprise, her father, who is a don of sorts, does not allow her daughter to marry the son of a lowly bank employee. Kishore€™s father (Chandra Mohan) also does not want his son to be associated with a criminal€™s family.
So the young lovers do what lovers world over have been doing since time immemorial ---elope. On the run, the don chases them, but eventually he sees the reason in their love after lengthy homily by the callow lovers.
It is a story that kindergarten students can write with just half an eye open. But the film is largely saved by the peppy performance of the lead pair Kishore and Renuka. Kishore, son of producer TVD Prasad, is earnest and enthusiastic. Renuka is glamorous and attractive. The chemistry between the two is spontaneous. The duo ooze class but the rest of the film, including some crass and coarse comedy, is aimed at the frontbenchers. There is a gaggle of comedians ----Venu Madhav, Brahmanandam, Rajesh and they play to the gallery with gusto. Then there are also Bhuvaneswari and Telangana Sakuntala who add to the fun track. Most of the times, the jokes fall flat.
The prime redeeming feature of the film is the music by Vandemataram Srinivas. He is in his elements and almost all the songs are uniformly good. The other technical aspects pass muster.
The director on the whole seems to have shot himself on the foot by choosing an old story and giving it an even more old treatment. The film may cut ice with only a certain section (B and C center audiences).
Pity that the inspired performance of the lead pair is wasted in such a story.