Movie Review: 'Chennai Love Story'

Cast: Kiran Abbavaram, Sri Gouri Priya, Trigun, Siri Hanumanthu, Mahindar, Karun Kumar, Devi Prasad, Pramodini, and others.

Music: Mani Sharma

Cinematography: Daniel Viswas

Story: Sai Rajesh

Screenplay: Sai Rajesh, Ravi Namburi

Producers: SKN, Sai Rajesh

Dialogues & Direction: Ravi Namburi

After creating a sensation with ‘Baby’, Sai Rajesh provided story-screenplay and co-produced the film ‘Chennai Love Story’ under Ravi Namburi’s direction. Kiran Abbavaram and Sri Gouri Priya are the leading pair, and as the film hit cinemas today, let’s see if it meets the expectations like Baby or not.

STORY:

Niveditha aka Nivi (Sri Gouri Priya) and Ajay (Trigun) are about to marry, but after making all the arrangements to tie the knot, he walks out of the wedding. Jilted and heartbroken by the happening, Nivi leads a hollow life in Chennai. Then enters Steven Shankar (Kiran Abbavaram), bringing some hope to her life. At a time when Nivi gets ready to marry him, another unexpected twist hits their life. What that twist is, its consequences, and how Nivi-Steven’s lives take a major turn happens to be the rest of the story.

NARRATION-ANALYSIS:

Inside ‘Chennai Love Story ’, as the hero is an aspiring filmmaker, the heroine reads his story and tells him that the story he wrote is just an adaptation of some known things, but not unique, like how millions of people do have their own stories. The kind of story we choose to tell makes us unique as a filmmaker, she says. And this film is exactly like that, never that routine love stories we watch. After showcasing the modern day relationships, youth’s thought process through ‘Baby’, Sai Razesh reaped profits at the box office with ‘Baby’, but ‘Chennai Love Story’ might not do the same, as he presented an honest love story on the screen. Though this movie might not lead to discussions and collections, such pure love stories are rare. Making people sit through 3 hours with such a story is a big feat.

Love stories should always reflect the reality of the living world, and that will connect to the audience. At a time when lip locks and intimate scenes are filling up love stories, making a film where the hero calls the heroine respectfully as ‘emandi’, and after months of travel without even touching him, the heroine gets ready to marry him, is a brave move. Chennai Love Story proves that if roles are full of life, and actors deliver on-point acting, then the film will impress the audience by giving them a unique experience. Though the story and situations are not new, surely they make us nostalgic. But to not invoke outdated feelings, Sai Razesh and Ravi Namburi run the narrative with a trendy treatment.

In any love story, the hero and heroine meeting unexpectedly and that meeting turning into love, and both getting ready for marriage, and a big twist separating them is a routine drama. Even Chennai Love Story runs in the same format. However, the backdrop of the main leads, the way songs are filmed, the situations they face, the conversations, all flow seamlessly and interestingly. Cutting out the drama, natural-sounding scenes and dialogues, rake up the curiosity about the next scene always. Simple introductions and love-building scenes are convincing. In the first hour, Chennai Love Story is full of fun vibes, but then the unexpected twist takes the viewer by storm.

However, when the audience is wondering how they would take the story forward after that twist, there comes another turn in the story that’s stunning. Chennai Love Story is a little predictable after this twist, and tests the patience of the audience with slow narration at times. With the story flow getting hindered by silly scenes, the film feels off track for some time. However, it ends up with touching emotion and intense scenes towards the end. A single mass scene brings a high in this class story, and in the last 20 minutes the emotions reach peaks. The climax is the biggest stunner. Though it seems the hero’s role loses logic midway and tests patience at times, some good things help us overcome it. Though it sounds like an old-school film, Chennai Love Story succeeds in giving a unique experience.

PERFORMANCES:

The main asset of ‘Chennai Love Story’ is the leads. The film is the best performance ever by Kiran Abbavaram to date. While he’s popular for playing attitude-centric roles, this time he moulded himself as an innocent boy, Steven Shankar. With his innocence, honesty, and goodness, he leaves a lasting mark, and he performs well in emotional scenes too. However, heroine Sri Gouripriya outshone Kiran with her acting prowess. Pouring a lot of emotion, acting like an experienced top starlet, she makes the audience feel the pain of Nivi’s character. Before the interval and after, and in the last 20 minutes of the film, her performance squeezes hearts. With natural beauty, appearance and screen presence, she convinces. As Ajay, actor Trigun played a subtle role. Pramodini and Devi Prasad as the heroine’s parents, and the likes of Karuna Kumar, Siri Hanumanthu and Mahinder have done their roles well.

TECHNICALITIES:

A love story’s backbone is music, and Mani Sharma delivers it for Chennai Love Story. After a long time, he impresses with songs and background score. Songs like Tholipremem, Jigitaara and Koyila Koyila are melodious, while others are okayish. Visuals crafted by Daniel Viswas are an asset to the film. Production values are apt and fit for the film. Writer Sai Razesh proves again with the story, though the narrative falters here and there. Ravi Namburi’s dialogues are effective for their simplicity rather than depth and rhyming. His conceiving of scenes is also good.

Finally: Chennai Love Story, a Soulful Love Story

Rating: 3/5