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.
