Saturday, February 15, 2014

Movie Review - Hum Tum (Telugu) - String of SMS jokes!!

Hum Tum is a rare breed of cinema which stupefies the viewers with an overdose of SMS jokes. When you take a respite in a song and dance sequence and want to sync and emote with the characters, there’s another joke waiting around the corner. Director Rom Bhimana (famous for his short film asl plz) tried to pump in disproportionate potions of love, romance, emotions and comedy in this long string of SMS jokes, or scenes inspired from SMS jokes. Even in this film, you will witness the famed ‘Condom of Suresh’ joke. Amid all this cheesy humor, the debutante director tried to inject some soul into the characters and the proceedings.


At the heart of Hum Tum, there is an engineering college and the lives of two students – Charan (Manish) and Pallavi (Simran). The story runs in a flashback mode when Pallavi, a successful fashion designer, narrates about the inspiration in her life and how a not so beautiful gal transformed into a stylist for celebrities. Manish plays a Mr. Do Good and he’s always been the apple of every girl’s eyes. Pallavi is smitten by his earthly charms and tries to make a cut. Here, the make-up man took an extra effort to add soot to deglamorize her. She breaks all hell loose to bring out her inherent beauty and surprise Manish. There is a sudden red herring kind of twist in the interval and after that the film rides on an emotional trajectory and drags for most of the time.


The setup of the film is a dig on urban engineering colleges infested with quirky characters – both students and lecturers. M S Narayana, the English professor, does a literal translation of Telugu lines to English to evoke laughter. Dharmavarapu, the Math lecturer, is famous for his soporific lessons. A student is an alter-ego of Posani and the gals have only one job to woo guys (taking tips and tricks from a book given by some Jyothi Malini akka). Adding to this the students quickly learn classical dance and theatre art to perform at their college fest. With each passing scene, the movie piles more layers of unrealistic set-pieces. 


Rom Bhimana shined as a dialogue writer at many places. Few jokes bring out genuine laughter and few lines tug at your heart strings. Some English translations like Temple steps water king, principal just passed away in the corridor were hilarious. Even some creative touches like Madonna hostel and ‘Marchipoya’ password tickle your funny bone. And one character mimicking the kite flying expertise of our heroes makes you fall off your chair.


Hero Manish looked like a caricature and had a limited role to play as the entire film revolved around the heroine, and the way she tried to amend her looks and get close to him. The most endearing moments are the Vikramarkudu spoof by ‘Allari’ Subhashini and the song Love You Raa, for which the producers might have spent half of the film’s budget. The point of view established in this song is similar to that of Telusunaa from Sontham.


Although the film has its downside, it’s a valiant effort by new comer Rom Bhimana. He delivered a quality product, in terms of aesthetics, on a shoe string budget. He brings out his funny and emotional side in his dialogues. Had there been decent performances from all the actors, the movie would have definitely spelled success. Hum Tum is a love story where you dig deep to find love in this story. It crosses the paths of films like Nuvvu Nenu, Anandam et al and harps on a point of not to leave ‘love’ for your career. It may go to the back burner for some time, but it gives you enough motivation to help you emerge as a winner.

My Rating: Expectation – 6/10; Reality – 5/10


This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

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