Shopping Mall is the dubbing version of a Tamil movie Angadi Theru, which was in contention as India's entry for Oscars in the Best Foreign Film Category. It didn't make it to the oscars. However, there should be something in this movie that must have taken it to such a level! Suresh Kondeti, who earlier brought Premisthe brings this movie into Telugu. Let's see how is it!

What’s it about: As the name suggests the movie is about what happens in and around a Shopping Mall. It tells the story of Shiva, who is very good at studies, but is forced to work after his dad expires. He starts working at a Shopping Mall along with his village friend Buchi Babu, and he soon realizes that far from the way it looks from outside, the Shopping Mall is a jail in itself. They have to work for almost 16 hours a day, eat in hellhole conditions, and live like dogs. Inspite of all these, everyone seems to be working because of their own reasons.

Shiva befriends Rani, who is a senior to him in the shop, and soon they fall in love. After a melodramatic situation, the boys and girls are not allowed to talk to each other! Rani and Shiva’s love story doesn’t go unnoticed by their abusive boss. Whether these two escape the clutches of their boss and how they tackle their ill fate is what the story is all about!

What is Good: The best part of the movie is the way it sets the environment right and the way it makes it motive straight forward. It is easily the way the story grasps you into it that is the best part of this movie. Right from the positive start to a heart wrenching end, the movie showcases the lives of a young couple, caught in the web of responsibility and abuse, love and fate. The environment is established clearly, and the motive more or less seems clear too.

It is after a long time that, as a reviewer, I get to talk about scenes than the actors and their prowess here. Watch out that passing scene in which the boy, after putting hundreds of hours as a slave, gets his salary – Terrific. And look at the way the girl has to go on continuing with selling sarees even after a horrifying experience – inimitable. The way the two characters run into an ATM center and how instead of picking up money they gather the pamphlets and run away is touching.

Anjali, as Rani, is extremely believable and brings in a lot to the character. Mahesh as Shiva is ok, though he can improve.

What is bad: The strengths of the movie - the story and the director are to be blamed for the misgivings of the movie. Yes acting in certain scenes could have been better. However, the director falls into the trap of getting his environment right, and also takes more time than necessary in trying to get more into this little content he’s got. He creates a setting much like Shawshank Redemption and makes a mess of it with unnecessary comedy scenes and flashbacks. He had the right to touch problems at various levels, and probably offer solutions. Instead he focuses more on the negative side of everyone in order to make his ordinary characters heroes. In the end, he destroys it all leaving his main protagonists to the winds of fate! The movie cannot be called pessimistic, because even pessimism has a sense of security to it. But Shopping Mall becomes purely negative portrayal of what life is.

A note on dubbing: Few things like changing the Tamil names and Tamil setting should have been done to dub it in Telugu. It is annoying to see the hero write the girl’s name in Tamil!

Technical Departments: The background music by G.V.Prakash is good, though sometimes reminding us of Fashion! The screenplay, after a song, uses the flashback method. All songs are more or less fine. Dialogues are fair, while the cinematography and editing focus more on establishing the city as a place for all kinds of misdemeanor behaviors and how the poor are exploited. The art directors and the assistant directors should be appreciated for creating a realistic setting to tell what the director had in his mind.

Final Point: Telugu movie audiences don’t like reality, though they don’t seem to mind some realistic movies like Premisthe now and then. The fate of Shopping Mall depends more on how the Telugu audiences react to this movie. This is the movie for only those who can sit through the negative portrayal of reality in life. Others who can’t handle negative emotions, give it a skip!