'Kalyanam Kamaneeyam' was released in theatres today. Here is our review of the film.
Plot
Shiva (Santosh Shoban) is a happy-go-lucky youngster who falls in love with Shruti (Priya Bhavani Shankar). They get married and soon, differences burst forth between the couple over Shiva's joblessness. As the film advances, Shruti realizes that she may have misunderstood her husband.
Performances
Santosh's breakout film 'Ek Mini Katha' doesn't play on his mind any longer. His performance in the film under review is measured. He does overcome the limitations of a caricaturish role here.
Debutante Priya Bhavani Shankar is watchable. Kedar Shankar as the male lead's one-dimensional father is average. Devi Prasad and Pavitra Lokesh as the female lead's parents are routine. Saptagiri gets a cameo role. Saddam is seen as the male lead's sidekick.
Technical aspects
Shravan Bharadwaj had a rare opportunity to mainstream himself a la Prashanth R Vihari and Vivek Sagar. 'Ho Egire', 'Oh Manasa' and 'Ayyo Ento' come with no novelty.
Karthik Gattamneni is not challenged by the script. The 'Kartikeya 2' and 'Dhamaka' cinematographer meets the expectations set by a UV Creations product. The dance choreography by Yash and Vijay Polaki is nothing home to write about.
Post-Mortem
In a pre-release interview, debutant director Anil Kumar Aalla repeated the words 'relatable', 'emotions' and 'conflict' one too many times. His jaded framing and answers made this interviewer wonder if the banality emerged from his film's lack of depth. Make no mistake, the film is superficial in every frame.
At 106 minutes, the film hurries through without doing any sort of world-building. Even the key plot turns are rushed. There is nothing incremental in the way Shruti's frustration toward Shiva is portrayed. She becomes toxic all of a sudden, and never does she question herself.
The worst ideas pertain to Satyam Rajesh's character and the male lead's hyper-intelligent persona. Rajesh is the heroine's boss at the office. Once he is introduced as a sexual creep, even a kid can predict where the story is headed. A harassing boss at the workplace is the equivalent of the eve teaser on the street in our films. Whenever the hero needs to redeem himself in the eyes of the heroine, the creepy boss/eve teaser enters the screen. And boom!
Then there is Santosh Shoban's smartness. He is jobless not because he is dumb but because he is bad luck ka 'baap'. He is not lazy, he knows good English and all. He can give the best answers in any domain, be it Dot Net or anything else. But even Shruti, who has been in love with him for 4 years, doesn't know of his amazing capabilities.
From a boozing scene to a pointless crisis (it is there just for the interval bang), this film is stuffed with scenes that we have seen a zillion times. At least Satyam Rajesh's character should not have been written so obviously. The boss' character should have been played by a serious actor like Ravi Prakash or Subbaraju; he should have been portrayed as someone who is empathetic, and kind-hearted. His sexual harassment angle should have been hidden from plain sight to be revealed in the second half. That would have shocked the audience and built some tension.
Closing Remarks
'Kalyanam Kamaneeyam' is your extremely predictable, cliched and even ridiculously dumb relationship drama where all sorts of contrived events happen in a span of a few months.
