Inside the Celluloid: Movie Review – Yeto Vellipoyindi Manasu (Telugu)

What’s GVM’s favorite adage?

Slow and steady wins the race.

It’s good to stick to the aforesaid adage but there should be a steady flow of events. If you make the movement a bit unstable then the movie will be rechristened as Yeto Vellipoyindi Movie (Hopefully the new expansion for the acronym).

What are GVM’s favorite words?

Déjà vu and Nostalgia.

We all like moments of déjà vu and nostalgia so GVM with his dubious distinction invoked the scenarios, characters, locales from his earlier movies. This time audience took it with more than a pinch of salt.

If I had written the review of Ye Maya Chesaave (YMC), I would have simply replaced the lead actor and music director with the new ones and pulled off the review of YVM. Alas!! I didn’t do that, so, I wrote it all a fresh.

Hope I was able to drive home the right point.

What’s common to YMC and YVM: a confused heroine, a hero who’s torn between love and career, the same guy playing the hero’s best bud, ego clashes and ‘All’s well that ends well’ climax. Be it the characterization, subtle references to the film’s Tamil version, Jiva’s cameo, everything was borrowed from YMC.

GVM presented an insult to the injurious ‘waiting woes.’ Everyone was so badly waiting for this film and it had been touted as a path-breaking love story. The makers even promoted it as “This could be your love story.” For that matter, it can also be called “This could be your CAT story.” But what came from the stable of Photon Kathaas is a half-baked cookie that lacked novelty and imagination.

YVM is a compilation of moments from the love story of Varun and Nithya. The narrative flowed flawlessly into time, weaving together on its way the lives of the lead pair. It all started when they were 8 years old and then moved on to 14, 16, 20 and finally sealing the innings when they were 24. The film starts on an impressive note and the heroine is introduced in a poetic way. The way Nani’s character switches between the male and female voices while singing Kammani ee prema lekhale from Guna makes every gal fall for him.

GVM tried hard to make the characters look natural and the film look real. There were few references to Mani Rathnam and Ilayaraja in the film. May be a fan boy, he pays a perfect homage to the legends. Most of the film was shot on the terrace of the apartments where the hero lives, and the entire set-up looks so real that you fall in love with that place. Singing and debate competitions at college fest - Amalgamation - are some magical moments in the film to which youngsters easily get connected. GVM should be applauded for an endearing climax. Albeit it’s a bit long, the way he has woven humor into a sad scenario so beautifully proves his classic touch.

The film’s simplicity lies in its simple dialogues but GVM went overboard in stretching every conversation between the lead pair like a chewing gum. So the simplicity is shattered by skewed screenplay. Though he admires us with an amazing 5-10 minute single-shot in the pre-interval sequence, he beats us to boredom with the lengthy dialogue and the camera placement that’s not able capture the facial expressions of the actors in a pivotal scene. Many such scenes in the film run longer than their ideal run-time.

Nani as Varun shined all though the film as a school kid, the guy next door, a B-school graduate. He’s portrayed the character’s transformation with aplomb. Samantha as Nithya looked cute and beautiful, but reprised her role from YMC. You have seen her doing that before so there’s nothing new she has to offer in this flick. Krishnudu and Vidyulekha induced some laughter in an otherwise boring saga and with some more screen space they would have out-shined the lead pair.

The music in the film elevates the mood consistently. The songs were appropriately placed and give the required flow for the film to qualify it as a Musical. Maestro Ilayaraja's music sure strikes the right chord, and gives a pleasant feel for the film. At times the background score looks underplayed but as the film is more dialogue based, Maestro used the needful background score only when needed.

The BGMs were especially wonderful for the sad sequences, and speak mountains about the emotions involved. Some of the music pieces were merely the instrumental versions of the song tunes, but they were used in variations aiding the situation in the film. Being Maestro Ilaiyaraja's film the audience might sure expect more grandeur as far as music is concerned, but the music was appropriate for the theme of the film.

The picturization accentuated the songs considerably. Most of the songs are played in pieces to give a musical feel to the film. The way Nani’s feelings were captured in Koti koti taarallona and Samantha’s in Atu itu choosukodu gaa are the most defining moments in the film. The icing on the cake is the song Yedhi Yedhi, a visual treat that comes right after Samantha expresses her love.

Bottom-line: YVM is bound to draw mixed reactions from the audience. Some may cherish the realistic treatment of the film and some may whine about it for boring them to death. Nani and Samantha didn’t act like lovers, they behaved like them. The lackluster script topped with fine acting by the actors, created on screen something that we had perhaps witnessed many times. Even the emotional scenes evoked chuckles from the audience. Watch YVM for the music of Maestro Ilayaraja and if you are expecting something else, please stay away from it. The film is replete with soulful music but it lacked soul – The story.

In a nutshell: YVM is a wave with IVM as its crest and GVM as its trough.