Release Date : April 21, 2023
123telugu.com Rating : 2.5/5
Starring: Gargeyi Yellapragada
Director: Srinivasu Kakarla
Producers: Padma Kakarla, Dr. Lakshmana Rao Dikkala, Varaprasada Rao Dumpala
Music Director: S Chinna
Cinematography: Prashanth Koppineedi
Editor: Rambabu Medikonda
Related Links : Trailer
A small-budget film Hello Meera starring Gargeyi Yellapragada in the lead role, has hit the screens today. The film has only one character and is directed by Srinivasu Kakarla. Let’s see how this experimental film is.
Story:
Meera Singaraju (Gargeyi Yellapragada), living in Vijayawada, is about to get married and goes to pick up her bridal outfits. She receives a call from Hyderabad police, who inform Meera that her ex-boyfriend Sudheer has attempted suicide and mentioned Meera’s name in the suicide note. Meera is asked to come to Hyderabad by the Police for an inquiry. A day before attempting suicide, Sudheer shares an Instagram post with a picture of him and Meera together and adds a caption that they both were celebrating their 4th love anniversary. Meera, who parted ways with Sudheer long back, gets shocked after learning this. What did Meera do then? Did she intimate her parents and fiancee about this? What’s the mystery behind Sudheer’s suicide attempt and its connection with Meera? The film has the answers.
Plus Points:
The entire film runs on phone conversations, and we only see Meera on screen. We get to hear Meera’s fiancee Kalyan, Meera’s parents and in-laws, police officials, goons, tailor, and many other characters. So it is important that these characters’ voices should be effective enough to convey emotions. The makers succeeded in this attempt nicely. Even the minute detail regarding the characters on the other side was stunningly presented.
It is tough to act in a film like Hello Meera, and Gargeyi Yellapragada has done a very good job. She had to react by imagining the emotion of the other characters, and Gargeyi did it with perfection. We can feel the various emotions undergone by Meera’s character due to the actress’s compelling performance. Gargeyi has put in cent percent effort for the film.
The first half has some good moments, and the film moves at a decent pace during this hour. The runtime, which is just about one and a half hours, is another advantage for Hello Meera.
Minus Points:
The second half and the climax are a total letdown in Hello Meera. Most part of the story gets completed in the first half, and there is nothing much that happens in the second hour plotwise. The pace dips drastically, and the film gets boring in this part. There are scenes that are overdramatized and cause irritation.
The thrill element, which was maintained in the first half, gets bogged down towards the climax. The final twist is not convincing, and hence the impact created in the first hour gets reduced highly. Also, the manner in which the twist is revealed is disappointing.
Even a character’s transformation has to happen instantly over the phone call, given the nature of the film. So this aspect cannot be avoided. Hence the scenes that come over the end lack believability and sound over the top. The movie might not go well with all sections of the audience as it has a single character.
Technical Aspects:
Films like Hello Meera must be technically super strong since there is only one character. More importantly, the sound effects and the camera angles should be highly superior for a viewer to connect to the movie. Hello Meera gets it right in these aspects. Chinna’s impactful background score and Prashanth Koppineedi’s solid cinematography helped the film big time. Various camera angles were used to avoid the monotony factor, which is appreciable.
The editing is okay, and a few scenes could have been cut short. Coming to the director Srinivasu Kakarla he, did an okay job with the film. He decided to go ahead with an experimental film for his debut project and succeeded to an extent in his attempt. But the experimental film has some inbuilt constraints which weakened the impact. Had the second half been good, the range of the film would have been even better.
Verdict:
On the whole, Hello Meera is an experimental film that works only in a few parts. Gargeyi Yellapragada’s scintillating performance and solid technical values are its assets. But the movie loses the steam midway, and the finale disappoints big time. Hence it ends up being a strictly okay watch this weekend.
123telugu.com Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed by 123telugu Team