There were love stories that filled the air with romance and pain, and
then there are love stories that only bank on the salable factor by forcefully
inducing old school clichés and masala tropes in the narration. Oka
Laila Kosam struggles to get into the zone of the former, but nestles in
the arms of the latter. Director Vijay Kumar Konda won the hearts of many with
his first film and tries to recreate the same magic by weaving a similar fabric
replete with embellishments. However, this time the gloss stays afloat keeping
other elements at the bottom.
Time and again, we are forced upon a happy-go-lucky guy who is
self-indulgent to the core. On the day of his convocation at Indian School of Business Studies (nice name though), he professes about 'freedom' and leaves many cushy job offers for it. This spoilt brat falls head over heels for someone with the qualities of a good samaritan. One after the other, few misunderstandings pop up
and the gal tries her best to stay away from the guy. But the guy never loses hope and makes it a point to throw many gibes at the gal to the level of intolerance.
The hero also dabbles with writing and pens his love story with the title Oka Laila Kosam; if that offers some respite, so be it. However, the book gets a mention only during the start and somewhere towards the end, making it another ill-placed prop in the screenplay. After multiple episodes of 'comedy of errors', finally, an untimely twist brings things to a cinematic
conclusion paving a way for 'all’s well that ends well'. That's some effort from my end to forcefully fit in Shakespeare in this review and nothing magical of sorts happen in the film.
Oka Laila Kosam seems
like a bag of borrowings – some from recent times and some as old as mountains. All these make it a mediocre mishmash. The visuals and few scenarios offer freshness but the director is hell bent to
Telugu-fy the screenplay with mundane treatment. Some sparks which fly in the
film’s initial run time are barely visible after interval. Only when Ali appears on screen, you muster all your energy to giggle, otherwise the film stretches like a chewing gum to test your patience.
The
three principal characters (one being a comedian) are not handled with conviction and lot of
inconsistencies creep into the narrative. Even some sub-plots protrude as sore thumbs. Adding further woes, the chemistry
between the lead pair couldn’t crackle and the jokes, at times, appear as
assortments of canned laughter. As the end credits roll, you'd be surprised to see the names of 'Satyam' Rajesh, Dhanraj, Josh Ravi, Vennela Kishore etc., and wonder where they were... err, why they were!
Anup Rubens and Andrew are the real winners with their music and
camerawork respectively. The visual panache is finely coupled with few lilting
tunes and refreshing background score. Towards the end, the film gets a melodramatic tinge with an over use of emotional tracks,
but the performances fail to live up to it. Even the character incoherencies play
spoilsport in this film, which stands tall on lackadaisical writing.
My Rating: Expectation - 7/10; Reality - 4/10
This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.
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