Amartya Smaran
Richie Gadi Pelli starring Sathya S.K, Praneeta Patnaik, Naveen Neni, and Bunny Vox is going to hit the theatres on March 3, under the KS Film Works banner. The screenplay is written and directed by KS Hemraj.
The film is about Richie’s wedding that is set to take place in picturesque Ooty. A good place to choose for a destination wedding, indeed. And even better for Richie’s highschool friends, who’re squirming through life, to come and unfurl all their problems. A wedding is incomplete without your buddies and for that reason Richie invites his gang.
Filmmaker KS Hemraj jumps straight to the point and introduces his characters one after the other. In the very first shot, we see Richie talking to his mates on a video call and then the narrative cuts to Richie and his fiance discussing why it’s so important for them to get hitched in Ooty. Soon, the director fixates on introducing us to Richie’s friends and their lives.
Each one goes through a unique significant problem. To give you an idea, Lakshmipathi– a married man well into his late 30’s with a kid, still has a zest for fast life. He takes pleasure in flirting with a receptionist upon arriving at the resort. His character had great script for being a saving grace for the film. Then there’s Chithra, a television anchor who is of the opinion that all men objectify women. What about Teja? He’s a serial actor. Sorry!
Hero. Teja finds himself in the midst of a #metoo controversy. Another interesting aspect is that Richie even calls his ex-girlfriend, Nethra, who regrets having broken up with Richie years ago and hopes to work things out with him.
Richie Gadi Pelli marks Sathya S.K’s Tollywood debut and the actor tries to play Richie with conviction. Naveen Neni plays the part quite well and Bunny Vox as Nethra looks somewhat uncomfortable in her skin, however she did fair justice to her character.
Praneeta Patnaik as Chithra is the embodiment of a perfect woman who’s got fixated ideas about the opposite gender. The rest of the cast are as good as the parts written for them.
All the friends arrive, and finally at night, everyone’s at the table sipping on their wine and eating good food. Things take a 180 degree turn when they decide to play this game.
What’s the game you ask? Well! The characters place their phones on the table and come what may, they answer their calls and put them on speaker. The game is about a person being open and honest, but this leads to a series of calls that reveal something alarming about the characters. From this point on, the constricted setting at the dining table doesn’t allow the camera (Cinematography by Vijay Ulaganath) to do much. All told, Vijay tries his best to capture the essence of the locations in the best possible way.
Each call presents itself with a different problem and the characters feel embarrassed to even comprehend the fact that they willingly got themselves into this mess. However, moments later, something magical happens and divine wisdom dawns upon them and they change.
For much of the film, this is what one would get to see and the director does try to touch various topics here: #metoo controversy, infidelity, women having fixated notions about men, can our potential partners be okay with our past and exes? and how men take women for granted.
On a brighter note, the film features two wonderful songs composed by music director Satyan but the background music scored by Britto Michael leaves a definitive void once you leave the theatre and so does the film.
