Review: Sirimalle Chettu fails to bloom

Nothing can save a movie if the basic storyline is poor. Not even 'Victory' Venkatesh and 'Prince' Mahesh, lovely music; good montage of actors such as Prakash Raj and Jayasudha, an enthusiastic director and of course, the hype that has surrounded the movie from the day it was announced in October 2011.

On the face of it, Seetamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (SVSC) seemed to have a lot of things going for it, but lack of a plot, a mindset stuck in the past and sentiment that goes overboard works against it.

The movie opens with the introduction of a middleclass family that thrives on love, affection, family relationships etc. Relangi garu (Prakash Raj) is a man who believes in being good to one and all and that goodness begets goodness.

His doting wife (Jayasudha), his mother and an aged matriarch (Rohini Hattangadi), two sons (Venkatesh and Mahesh) and a daughter besides Seeta (Anjali), who is his niece (mena kodalu) share the same sentiment.

The first one hour is spent establishing the family's day-today happenings ' conversations around the Sirimalle chettu that is the pride of the family, lunch time with familiar refrains like 'Adem tinadam, sarigga tinara', naughty grandsons pulling the granny's legs, girls teased in a brotherly way' Looks good, feels great. But what next?

Nothing much is established here except that we get to know that the two boys are incompetent in getting a job. However, the director decides to portray the brothers in great light, as paragons of virtue who are unable to fit into the big, bad world. But then, he does not establish any scene or sequence which clearly shows what exactly the brothers - one grumpy and the other playful - expect out of the world and the system.

It is here that SVSC goes down the slide. Then they have some old family feuds with their uncle's family (Rao Ramesh) referred to as 'Bezawada vallu'. When the family refers a marriage alliance for their sister, the elder one outrightly rejects it as he does not want to take any obligation from the Bezawada family. This creates a rift in the family.

The only sane character is that of Rao Ramesh who plays a successful man. He looks down upon the Relangi family because the family lacks vision, plan and strategy and is always involved in family relationships.

Incidentally, Mahesh falls in love with his daughter (Samantha). How the two Relangi sons finally manage to do something useful, get their sister married, and how they realise that goodness indeed begets goodness is the rest of the story.

The positive points in the movie is the camaraderie between the brothers, how they alone can understand each other without having to say a word and the character of Seeta ' who looks the quintessential manchi Telugammayi.

Clad in homely sarees, with a hint of kohl in her expressive eyes, sirimalle flowers in her braid and her innocence make her a good package. The setting of the homely house with lots of memories and legacies is a treat to the eye. That nobody in the family is addressed by their names but by the relationship also shows how close-knit it is.

However, scenes like how the brothers question each other when an alliance comes for their sister, how they advice each other on getting jobs, Mahesh falling for Samantha and vice-versa seem poorly etched. There are hardly any scenes where you are stirred in your seat or touched in the heart.

Yes, there is lots of melodrama, but nothing that makes you go all moist in your eyes. Scenes like where Mahesh meets the Bezawada family over a lunch in a restaurant or his interview at a corporate company had the potential to become landmark scenes but the scenes barely manage to register their presence.

Seeta and Peddodu breaking into a rain song should have been handled deftly. One expects the movie to have dialogues that would be searched on in Google and mouthed during family gatherings but nothing leaves an impression.

The way Seeta is treated in the house ' often addressed by Peddodu as 'aye' instead of her name ' is plain regressive. In any case, the movie seems to be making a point that people who want to make it big, buy bigger houses and settle down in life are all materialistic brutes.

In a day where youngsters revel in saying they work and study or have grand plans of making their first million before they turn 25, the two brothers seem to be caught in a time wrap. Mahesh is often shown taking a train, ostensibly to go to Hyderabad, but nobody has a clue of what he does and why he is any better than his elderly.

The title song is easy on the ears and is picturised nicely. Overall, individual performances are good, but the combined chemistry is missing. Venkatesh gives a restrained performance. Mahesh suits the character of an easy-going brother to the hilt. He looks so cute, you would want to squish his cheeks.

Overall, SVSC comes across as a great package but has its own shortcomings that stare you in your eye.