Movie Review - Oohalu Gusagusalade (Telugu) - Avasarala meets Allen!!

Picture this… The lead characters of the film get introduced by talking to the camera. There’s an unknown person trying to probe more into their lives. May be a film noir touch, but that’s predominantly a Woody Allen approach on screen. There’s a book, may be an autobiography, of Allen in the hero’s library. Wait, that’s not all. One movie poster shows a Telugu version of Annie Hall with Srinivas Avasarala sharing the credits with Allen. Now, that’s an obsession with the master and his craft. Director Srini Avasarala strikes gold on his debut by pulling off a Woody Allen-esque ensemble. The whispers speak a lot and churn three sparkling characters in Oohalau Gusagusalade, which has its heart at the right place.

The main plot of the film has been adapted from the French play, Cyrano De Bergerac. The play, with a tweaked plot, has seen many adaptations; of which the notable ones are Tamil film Duet and English film The Ugly Truth. Picking a fork from many such films, director Avasarala adds all the necessary ingredients that go into a typical romantic comedy. All these are cooked on a slow fire to get the subtle taste of love, emotion and laughter that may make you fall off your chair. 

Venkateswara Rao / Venky (Naga Shourya) is a dreamer and aspires to become a television news reader to keep up his father’s legacy. However, bitten by fate he lands up in the job of Teleshopping anchor. His boss Uday (Srini Avasarala) has problems in breaking ice with women. He isn’t a glib talker so takes the help of Venky to get the things in groove. This new assignment puts Venky in the soup as it rekindles the flames from his past love story with Prabhavati (Rashi Khanna) – a practical girl with her feet on ground.

The story is simple with three characters and few locations. The first half was shot in beautiful locales of Vizag and even the studio environment in the second half is a treat to watch. The impeccable set design exudes a lot of vibrancy needed for the film. The mood lighting, soothing background score and witty dialogue do more for the scene to take wings. The clash of egos of the lead pair has been orchestrated so delicately, that you will root for both of them.

All the characters are well fleshed out, but there lies a void in Prabhavathi whose evolution, in a span of four years, as someone with a penchant for art goes missing from screen. The actors, including the supporting cast, flourish and complement the razor-sharp writing of Avasarala with their near perfect performances. Naga Shourya is a bundle of talent, Srini Avasarala plays his usual self as a horrible boss and Rashi Khanna looks uber cute with a worldly charm hidden in her smile and expressions.

Oohalu Gusagusalade has an exciting start and the flashback episode is more endearing and believable. The second half paves way for more situational humor. This is one such film where everything seems predictable but you love to see the way things will unfold on screen. You develop a liking for the conversations and the characters. Though there are few intermittent dull moments, they never hamper the narration. The film marks Srini Avasarala’s maiden steps into film-making, which have the style of sensibilities of Woody Allen. 

Few pointers for the director:

1) Jalsa was released in April 2008 and I don't know whether it had a 400+ days of theatrical run with packed houses till May 2009. Here, music director Kalyani Koduri did a cameo as a seller of black tickets.

2) In the flashback episode, Prabhavati's age was 19 years. So after four years she should be 23, and not 25 as said by her in the film. 

My Rating: Expectation - 5/10; Reality - 7/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.
An edited version of this piece can be found here.