Brahma Anandam is the latest box office release. Directed by a debutant and produced by Agent Sai Srinivas Athreya and Masooda fame Rahul Yadav Nakka, its review is here.
Plot:
Brahma (Raja Goutham), a struggling theatre artist with an uncertain future and a pile of debts, has to go to a village with Ananda Ram Murthy (Brahmanandam) when the latter lures him with a real estate gift. Brahma realizes that Ananda's game-plan is something else.
Post-Mortem:
More often than not, supposed slice-of-life dramas in Telugu turn out to be comedies with limited drama reserved just for the final fifteen minutes. The drama is just a formality before the film is wrapped up. With Brahma Anandam, director RVS Nikhil does this without disrespecting his subject material and without compromising on the core. He skates a thin line by balancing drama with required doses of humour.
The technical departments keep the genre-related constraints in view and go for minimalistic execution. The songs (composed by Sandilya Pisapati) work as understated montages. The BGM is adequate. Mitesh Parvathaneni's cinematography is passable.
Brahmanandam and Raja Goutham, his real-life son, portray a grandfather and grandson. They joke around, laugh together, sob together, express their frustrations (either vehemently or subtly), and both look to turn over a new leaf. Their performances are rock-solid.
Vennela Kishore plays Brahma's all-weather, exploited, restless friend. Priya Vadlamani plays Brahma's unloved girlfriend who must accept humiliation. Aishwarya Holakka plays Rajeev Kanakala's daughter; as the pampered daughter of a Sarpanch, she looks like the privileged yet bubbly village girl next door. After a long time, Mirchi fame Sampath Raj returns to the Telugu silver screen in a meaty role.
The drama should have deepened in the second half, given that the characters are meaty. Brahma, who has shirked responsibilities all his life and who apparently doesn't understand the value of relationships (he is not exactly an orphan; he has a loving gf, a caring sister, and a Babai who is not that bad), is not as thoughtful as he was supposed to be in an alien setting with a new-found companion. He comes across as a cinematic character who is aping imitating an onscreen character he secretly admires. He believes acting is his identity but his body language doesn't carry the seriousness. Brahmanandam's character is an ex-novelist but his language is just banal.
A lot of the time, the audience gets the joke much before the characters. The main characters never know when to put a full-stop to their conversations. The Brahmi memes are godly for the Telugu yuvatha, but the film wastes a golden opportunity to go for memorable meta jokes. On one occasion, the "Guruvu Garu, Guruvu Garu.." reference from Adhurs is deployed; the execution and writing are criminally lame here.
Closing Remarks:
Brahma Anandam has some coming-of-age elements, but it's more of a lighthearted comedy than a hard-hitting drama.
