Chi La Sow - Movie Review

What’s it about!
Arjun (Sushanth) who doesn’t want to get married for another five years reluctantly agrees to see the girl his mother has selected for marriage alliance. As per his wish, the girl Anjali (Ruhani Sharma) meets at his home in the evening time and his parents go away for dinner to provide privacy for them. Arjun tells Anjali that he agreed to meet her on the insistence of his mother but says no to her match, she gets angry but they start talking to each other about their lives. He comes to know her sad story. By end of their chat, he feels attracted to her probably by out of sympathy. Around the same time, she gets a call from her sister informing her that their mother got admitted in hospital and both of them rush to hospital. During the next few hours in the night, their lives are changed forever.
 
Analysis
 
Actor turned director Rahul Ravindran in his debut directorial movie has come up with an interesting idea for the plot - a boy and a girl meet for pelli choopulu at an unlikely place and at odd hours (night) and before the dawn comes their lives become inseparable. Despite such new idea, the plot looks largely familiar due to regular scenes. More importantly Tarun Bhaskar’s ‘Pelli Choopulu’ casts a shadow on this.
 
Unlike ‘Pelli Choopulu’, the crux of the story (80 percent of the movie) happens in just 12 hours (night) period. The film begins with protagonist Arjun narrating how his mother and other people in his life keep asking him to get married though he is just 27. Nearly 25-minutes of the movie run on routine way describing his lifestyle, his mother nagging about marriage, etc. As we start getting restless, Rahul Ravindran introduces the female protagonist Anjali into the story and she brings beat to the story, and changes Arjun’s life.
 
Like in ‘Pelli Choopulu’, both hero and heroine start talking about their lives for about half hour. While Arjun’s story is dull and routine, the problem that Anjali is facing, why she has agreed to meet him for pelli choopulu at night alone is explained in engaging and touching way. The story then takes a sudden turn and goes into a murder mystery mode for some time and later turns into sentiment drama. The second half has many good moments but the pace is not consistently smooth. It has ups and downs. The heroine misunderstanding the hero in the second half looks flimsy. Rahul Ravindran handles heroine’s part so well and emotional sequences.
 
For a plotline that is as thin as blue chunni the girl wears in the film, it has fatty scenes – unnecessary episodes. Putting a dance song right after the interval, the extended murder mystery, an orange-juice sequence with Vennela Kishore towards the end have just prolonged the runtime.
 
The film also has some issues like heroine’s dressing style and makeup. She is shown as a girl with acne in the beginning but in the final portions her face is smooth without any pimples. Any girl comes for a pelli choopulu in best-dressed manner but here she comes in an ordinary salwar-kurta (type of chudidar that girls wear at home). When the story happens in 12-hour period and she has to appear the entire movie in that dress, it would have made visually appealing had they made her better dressed.
 
As far as performances concerned, Sushanth has got best role in his career. He is quite natural and has given good performance. Ruhani Sharma has expressive face and she steals the show. Hers is author-backed character and she has owned it. Vennela Kishore is a comic relief. Rohini as a mother with serious health problem has given her best performance. Anu Haasan as Sushanth’s mother is okay. Rahul Ramakrishna as police officer makes his presence felt.
 
This is a movie made with low-budget. The film’s technical and production values are okay. The music is ordinary.
 
As writer and director, Rahul Ravindran has shown his mark in many scenes.
 
Bottom-line: Rahul Ravindran’s debut direction ‘Chi La Sow’, a romantic entertainer based on a pelli choopulu episode, is a decent watch. It works in parts though it has inconsistent narration, and looks stretched in the second half.