This week’s new release, ‘Vaade Kavali’ is yet another ‘love’ story which tries to define love and how it changes our lives. Sairam Shankar, Suhasi and Chandrahas play the lead roles in the film. Directed by Rajendra Darshan, the film has been produced by Veeresh Kasani and Raghunath Sogi on ‘Veeru Creations’ banner. SVR Media Pvt Ltd presented this film. The film is the story of a girl who believes that true love is pre-destined and also that lies cannot sustain a relationship even if they are good to hear.

What is it about : Sairam Shankar stars as Anand, a happy-go-lucky guy who believes in living life to the fullest. Latha (Suhasi) keeps rejecting all the marriage proposals as she believes that she’s yet to meet man of her dreams. One day he bumps into Latha and immediately falls in love with her. Latha’s aunt pesters her to not reject the marriage proposals. Anand keeps following Latha everywhere and finally even Latha believes that maybe Anand is the guy she has been waiting all her life. Did they fall in love? Is Anand really the guy for whom Latha has been waiting all her life? What is true love? Can love sustain all by itself, despite several problems? This forms the rest of the story.

What is Good: The story and dialogues penned by Prakash start off on an interesting note in the first few minutes of the film. Suhasi does well in her debut film as far as her performance and histrionics goes. Although, she doesn’t portray too many emotions on her face, her chirpy smile and anger brightens up the screen. Sairam Shankar has great energy when it comes to his dances and action sequences. The sarcasm in his voice while delivering the witty lines in the first half is good. Chandrahas, in his debut film, is alright.

What is bad: The first half of the film gives scope for an interesting twist to Latha’s characterization where she has to grapple between what love is and how things change with time. However, she doesn’t let this thought creep into her mind. She continues to be headstrong and surprisingly, melts down a moment later due to some reasons. Anand, on the other hand, struggles to prove that he’s a good person irrespective of his faults. Sairam Shankar’s squeaky tone is unpleasant on the ears and he needs more grooming. The entire second half of the film runs on a predictable note and has quite a few boring moments. The film also goes into an embarrassingly gloomy mode where almost everyone looks sad. The comedy track between Raghu Babu and Venu Madhav is terrible and the same goes with the item song in the film. Screenplay could have been much better throughout the film.

Technical Departments: Story and dialogues written by Prakash are alright. It has some similarities with Karunakaran’s ‘Ullasanga Uthsahanga’. Cinematography by Kalyan is good especially in the songs. Editing by Krishna Reddy is adequate. Music by RP Patnaik is alright. Couple of songs sound pleasant thanks to the music and the lyrics. Rajendra Darshan also handled the screenplay apart from directing it. Screenplay could have been much better throughout the film, especially the second half. Direction is good in parts.

Bottomline: These days, most of the love stories almost run on similar lines. But what makes a love story lovable, is the sparkling chemistry between the lead pair. However, there’s hardly any spark in this film. Anand treats Latha as a prized possession and we never get to know what Latha thinks of Anand. The insipidly etched love story between the two, never lets the aspects of love, struggle, pain and loss reach the audience. Further, barring few dialogues here and there, most of the dialogues sound like tongue twisters and there are just too many of them throughout the film. More than anything, the film shrouds itself in a preaching mode about love, life and doesn’t even spare God! ‘Vaade Kaavali’ is a film where the lead girl writes a diary, believes in Astrology, Horoscope and destiny. In the end, despite the happy ending, the Horoscope of the film is bad and the stars of the universe don’t align in favour of both the film and its audience. A big thumbs down to ‘Vaade Kaavali’.