Varadu Kaavalenu - Lagging behind the rest

 

Varadu Kaavalenu

2021, Telugu

Director: Lakshmi Soujanya

Stars: Naga Shaurya, Ritu Varma, Murali Sharma, Nadhiya

A clean, family entertainer.  Every good critic must make sure to start with the positive.  But, this is the only positive thing I can say about this romantic drama that comes shooting straight out of Tollywood.

You know Tollywood, the one that disavows all other knowledge of Hyderabad other than its mega wealthy satellite cities.  The same Tollywood that includes bad guys to be beaten up in over the top ways in what is supposed to be a romance.

And what romance, an unrequited one which suddenly pops up as a college flashback so that a few trite jokes can be made.  Flash forward and we see a multi-billionaire long for the trees and grass of India, so that he can return to the overpriced concrete jungle of Lanco Hills. Why?  So that he can reunite with a girl he had no feelings for in the first place.

Which makes one to question why the lead pair, who are as convincing as auto rickshaws in Jubilee Hills, where on earth the romance is to fit in to all of this.  Perhaps, it is for us poor folks not to know.

Mohan's Measure ⭐