The good thing about a subject like Lokame Kothaga is it shows that Telugu filmmakers are looking for novel ideas, even though this one is inspired by a Kannada film. However, what’s disappointing to see is the way such subjects are executed, as the filmmakers do not exactly pinpoint what is it that they want to say with their film, till the climax.

What’s it about : Hyderabadi girl Aditi (Aditi Agarwal) is a newbie at a college, along with Jyoti of Amalapuram. Inspite of different backgrounds and perspectives, Aditi and Jyoti become close chums with their seniors Sheetal and Prema. Prema is going strong with her boyfriend, even though she has a very tough dad at home. Sheetal doesn’t mind calling boys as ATMs, and she has a reason to justify too. Jyoti’s love story comes with an expected twist, and all of these stories start affecting Aditi’s budding love story with a musician Rahul (Sivaji). How these girls face their problems and come of age forms the rest of the story.

What is Good : As mentioned already, the concept of four girls coming of age deserves to be applauded. Because the movie completely belongs to the girls, and it is told from Aditi Agarwal’s perspective, the girl shines in a very nice role. Senior actors like Suman, Sutti Velu, Vizag Prasad etc., add their bit in the film’s dramatic scenes.

Inspite of being a so-called message oriented film, Lokame Kothaga has quite a few problems, and they start right from the first frame of the movie.

What is bad: Being a girl oriented movie the girls needed to perform better. Instead they all come across as phonies, speaking in a language they hardly seem to know! Sivaji is a complete misfit in the film as a softhearted music director, who sings extremely emotional love songs. His love story with Aditi suffers from too much of sweetness added through heavy dialogues and songs. Suman Shetty’s comedy scenes were put in only to increase length of the film, ditto like the number of songs in the movie. The entire first half of the movie is dedicated to establishing the characters, and the pace of the story picks up late in the second half. The final message given at the end of the film contradicts one of its own stories!

Technical Departments : The writer’s efforts to convey the problems of the girls turn futile with dialogues that do not make any impact. With poor staging and very little control on the medium, the director failed to connect the emotions of a modern girl to the audiences. Editing is poor and there is nothing tell-able about camera work. Inspite of having many songs, with two ripped off directly from A.R. Rahman’s collection, most of them are boring.

Final Point : From a film like Anthuleni Katha till the recent Anand, film subjects featuring strong women facing ‘changing times’ are not new to Telugu audiences. Those movies paid homage to women, one way or the other, with characters that were written beautifully and enacted with equal might. Lokame Kothaga is a botched up attempt to create another such kind of a film.