Sundaram Master Movie Review

Harsha Chemudu who shot to fame with the Viva video on YouTube entered films as a comedian. He evolved into the main lead with Sundaram Master which was released today in theaters. Produced by actor Raviteja, Harsha Chemudu acted as a teacher who visits a remote place. Let us see if Sundaram Master achieves what he wants. Here is the review from the US Premieres.

What Is It About?

The tribal people of Miryalametta who never allow anyone to enter their village ask the government for an English teacher. The MLA (Harshavardhan) hears that there is a highly valuable thing in the tribal village and sends Sundaram Master (Harsha Chemudu) to the village. Did Sundaram master really go there to teach English? What did he find in the village? Sundaram Master answers these questions.

Performances

Harsha Chemudu has acted in many sidekick and comedian roles recently and tried in the lead role for the first time. Though comedy is his prime asset, none of the comedy scenes worked. Divya Sripada and others did what was needed in their respective roles.

Technicalities

Sundaram Master has a message that was told many a time. In fact, Sundaram Master could not strongly convey the message it intended to. The village, dialogues, and English comedy did not help in bringing it all together for a proper conclusion. Though the director’s idea to emphasize a point could be understood, it is lost in the narrative. The background music is just fine. A few visuals and a very few dialogues are good.

Thumbs Up

A Very Few Comedy Scenes

Thumbs Down

Second Half
Climax
Lack of Emotional Depth

Analysis

Sundaram Master is a story of a greedy teacher who is sent to a tribal place to teach them English, but he becomes a student when they start teaching him life lessons. However, Sundaram Master’s message is lost in execution, even with good grammar.

The first half of Sundaram Master has a few comedy scenes that hardly worked. The spelling comedy and the teaching lessons appeared like slapstick humor after a few scenes. The second half lacks that comedy also and goes more into the preaching and philosophy mode. The episodes that try to enlighten Sundaram Master appear forced. The transformation of Sundaram lacked that strong conviction. There are a few good dialogues here and there. The tribal people living in the pre-independence era connecting to the emotion of cricket is an exaggerated episode.

The setup of a small tribal village is not very convincing. The villagers who are stubborn in a few aspects give up on other things so easily. Though the English-speaking concept appears to be the main point in the film, it gets sidelined conveniently for the message. The purpose of bringing Sundaram Master to the village is not served and neither the closure is convincing. The narrative goes awry many a time with dragged episodes and English-speaking characters.

Many movies like Gamyam and Vedam show how a man can change with the circumstances and people around him. Sundaram Master also revolves around that concept, but the narrative loses its originality due to a lack of proper establishment of characters and bonding between them, and depth in the scenes among others. Overall, Sundaram Master and the villagers pass only the English test, but not in conveying the social message they intended to.

Bottomline: Extremely Boring Class

Rating: 1.75/5