Idi Naa Love Story - Movie Review

'Idi Naa Love Story', starring Tharun and Oviya in the lead, hit the screens on Wednesday on the eve of Valentine's Day. Let's find out what works and what doesn't.

Story:

Abhiram (Tharun) comes to some scenic place to see Dr. Shruti (Oviya), the sister of his sister's boyfriend.  As his luck would have it, she is alone at home.  Our cute lover boy decides to share his failed love story with the girl.  

As his bad luck would have it, the girl too has a love story.  For no rhyme or reason, they imagine each other while narrating their flashbacks.  

By the interval, Abhiram comes to know that Dr. Shruti whom he was supposed to meet is not in the town at all.  He has been talking to Abhinaya.  

The second half is about how the male Abhi and the female Abhi fall in love for one final time, but not before a twist by the latter.

What works:

The music works to some extent. Srinath Vijay's music is best heard as distinct from the movie. In the movie, the songs hinder the flow and so, it's difficult to feel them. If Christopher Joseph's cinematography is fairly good anywhere, it's in the songs.  

What doesn't work:

This remake of a Kannada movie named 'Simple Aagi Ondh Love Story' is an experiment that should have been avoided. The director (Ramesh Gopi) had a story where almost all the scenes are between the lead pair. And they have to keep talking and talking over a span of one day. One has to pen solid scenes to keep the audiences engaged in such a backdrop. However, the love stories that Tharun and Oviya narrate to each other are laughable.

In one of the scenes, the heroine wants to water plants when it's raining. The hero points out its raining. And she tells him, "Just because we know we are not going to have children, will we stop doing 'samsaram'?" 

In another scene, she says that dog biscuits don't contain a dog in them, while cream biscuits contain cream. There are many dialogues about dogs. In one more gem of a scene, Tharun says that many of the married ones pretend that first night is happening to them for the first time.  Our suspicion is that some Bajrang Dal member wrote the dialogues to harass lovers on this Valentine's Day. 

In another scene, Oviya tells the hero that her favourite star's movie is being aired on TV. Guess who is that star? Manchu Manoj. 

The heroine tells the hero she has a disease. "I am doing Aloo Paratha. Tell what it's after I am done," he tells her. This is when the power supply goes off. She is in a red sari. Our hero gets romantic. It's time for a duet. To hell with the disease.

Most of the second half is spent on Tharun's old love story. But there is no justification for this either. In the very initial scenes, he makes it clear that he doesn't care about his past lover anymore. Then why spend so much time on it?  

In Oviya's love story, her old lover (also played by Tharun) is a painter who dumps her.  It's difficult to feel anything strongly about her love story, as she herself doesn't care about it anymore.  

Performance score:

Tharun may not be as young as he was in his prime, but he is fairly lovable. He is convincing in those dances and the expressions and dance moves in the songs remind one of his 'Nuvve Kavali' and 'Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu' days. His dialogue delivery has matured, probably because his voice and the art of modulation have changed for the better.  

Having said about Tharun in the film's pluses, let's talk about Oviya's performance.  The Bigg Boss sensation (in Tamilnadu) is a huge letdown. Her dubbing, the lip sync, her comic timing - everything is too poor.  

All the other actors are seen in bit roles and there is nothing much to write about them.

Bottomline:

After long gap, Tarun has returned to silver screen with 'Idi Naa Love Story' but this ranks top in his bad movie's list. This is lousiest movie. Utterly nonsensical scenes, laughable dialogues in serious scenes, a forgettable performance by the heroine. Only Tharun is something worthy to write about.