Telusu Kada Review

With DJ Tillu in 2022 & Tillu Square in 2024, Siddhu Jonnalagadda appeared to be on track to become a bankable hero with a good following among the youth audience. However, his earlier film, Jack, ended up becoming a huge disaster and put a break on Siddhu’s hit streak. A majority of the people felt that Siddhu was still under the influence of the ‘Tillu’ characterisation in Jack. At a time in his career when he needed a good film to retain his lost glory, he teamed up with Neeraja Kona, a costume designer and stylist turned director, for a contemporary romantic drama film. Raashii Khanna and Srinidhi Shetty played the female lead roles in the movie. After generating enough buzz with songs that Thaman scored, the film was finally released in theatres today. Did Telusu Kada help Siddhu Jonnalagadda score a hit film? How did Neeraja Kona do with her debut film as the director and writer? How did Raashii Khanna and Srinidhi Shetty look beside Siddhu on screen? Did the production house, People Media Factory, deliver yet another successful film after, Mirai, last month? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Varun(Siddhu Jonnalagadda), an orphan and a self-made man, aims to have a happy family with a wife and kids. However, his girlfriend, Raaga(Srinidhi Shetty), does not believe in having a ‘name and definition’ to the relationship. And, she also does not believe in marriage. After the breakup with Raaga, Varun gets married to Anjali(Raashii Khanna) and the couple eventually gets to know that they can’t have biological kids. How did Raaga come back into Varun’s life? Where did Anjali and Raaga meet and how did their bond evolve? What decision did Anjali take to fulfil the wish of having her own kids? How did Anjali’s decision affect, all three of them? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

In total, the film has only nine characters. And, in those nine characters, only four characters played by Siddhu Jonnalagadda, Raashii Khanna, Srinidhi Shetty, and Harsha Chemudu, occupy about 80% of the screen time. Siddhu Jonnalagadda in the role of Varun delivered a good performance in most parts. His dialogue delivery & comedy timing were effortless in most places. We could clearly see the conscious effort he put into not look and sound like ‘Tillu’ and he appeared to have come out of the influence of the ‘Tillu’ characterisation. However, the conscious effort he put in, looked obvious and it appeared odd at times.

Raashii Khanna in the role of Anjali Sharma looked great and performed well. Her chemistry with Siddhu worked out so well throughout the film, especially the chemistry between them during their first sequence together was very good. Srinidhi Shetty as Raaga Kumar got an author-backed role. She delivered a good performance. Particularly, her performance during the flashback episodes, was very commendable.

Harsha Chemudu in the role of a best friend and partner in business to Varun, got a full-length role and he utilised it very well. He generated quite a few laughs throughout the film. Veteran actress, Annapoornamma, in the role of the grandmother, made her experience count in a heartwarming sequence with Raashi Khanna, during the climax portion. Rohini & Sanjay Swaroop, made their presence felt in brief roles.

Technicalities:

Thaman delivered two very good songs. Both songs became chartbusters even before the release of the film and they looked even better on screen. He also delivered a good background score. However, the ‘OG’ like score to elevate the hero in a romantic drama film, looked out of place at times. V. S. Gnana Shekar’s cinematography is first-rate. His camera work in particular during the flashback episodes between Varun and Raaga, deserves special appreciation. The montages in the songs, especially, the way the vineyard was captured in a song, were so pleasant and beautiful.

Naveen Nooli’s editing was good in most parts. However, a bit more care in editing would have been taken to avoid a few repetitive sequences. Production values by People Media Factory, were good. The production team trusted the debut director and provided all the required resources without compromising on the quality. Let’s discuss more about the writer and director, Neeraja Kona’s work in the analysis section.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Two Songs
2.⁠ ⁠Relatable Dialogues In Most Parts
3.⁠ ⁠Four to Five Beautifully Executed Moments
4.⁠ ⁠Actors Performances
5.⁠ ⁠Fresh Conflict Point

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Overboard Dialogues At Times
2.⁠ ⁠Limited Appeal
3.⁠ ⁠A Few Repetitive Sequences
4.⁠ ⁠Unnecessary Slow-Motion Hero Elevation Shots

Analysis:

We are living in an era where the meaning of a relationship between a boy and a girl keeps evolving with each passing day. A majority of the people in the current generation may think that they have full clarity about their relationship goals but more often than not, people in this generation are just confused and clueless when it comes to relationships. The ability and patience to navigate through the rough phase by not shying away from having difficult conversations, is lacking in a majority of people these days and most of them think a ‘breakup’ or a ‘divorce’ is the easy solution to fix a problem related to a relationship. The writer and director, Neeraja Kona, took this very relatable point, blended it with three characters with three different traits and came up with a fairly engaging romantic drama that very well resonates the thought process of current generation youth, particularly the urbane crowd.

The good thing about the film is its authenticity. It is unapologetically true to its director’s vision and thought process. However, in the process of being as authentic and relatable as possible, the director restricted the reach of the film to a limited set of audiences. If you can keep your conventional thought process about relationships, away and can watch a film with an open mind, you may end up liking the film. Two very good songs, regular doses of humour which may work well with the current generation, especially the urban youth, relatable dialogues for the most part and four to five well executed moments, worked in favour of the film. The majority of the film runs on only four characters and a major portion was shot in a single location but the first-time director, Neeraja Kona with her clarity in writing and the performances of the four main actors, made sure the film engages the audience throughout in a decent manner.

The first meeting sequence between Varun and Anjali and the conversation they have during the meeting, the moment during the baby shower function where Varun applies ‘Pasupu’ on the cheeks of both Anjali and Raaga together with both his hands, the fun banter between the three during the ‘baby kick’ sequence, the sequence where Varun compares Raaga with ‘Roller Coaster Ride’ and Anjali with ‘Calmness’, Annapoornamma’s heart-touching sequence during the climax. All these sequences were written and directed well and they worked out in favour of the film. Along with the aforementioned beautifully executed moments and regular doses of humour, Neeraja Kona also came up with good dialogues (Ex. Kasepu em matladaddu….ne silence vinalani vundi’, ‘Antha jarigithe…nenu vadiki okka mata kuda cheppaledu…antha jarigina…vadu nannu okka mata kuda analedu’), throughout the film.

On the flip side, there’s not much story and the screenplay of the film gets repetitive at times. Since there’s not much to reveal in the first half after establishing the conflict point, the director used too many slow-motion shots of the hero as fillers. The over-the-top hero elevation slow-motion shots with OG like background score by Thaman, looked completely out of place. Also, in an attempt to sound very relatable to the target audience, the writer in Neeraja Kona went overboard at times with dialogues, especially the dialogues used for Annapoornamma’s character in the second half are of poor taste. The entire sequence where she talks about ‘veeryam'(sperm), looked very forced and appeared as a desperate effort to generate some cheap humour.

Overall, Telusu Kada is a fairly engaging film and you may give it a try by watching it in theatres. Neerja Kona as a writer and director made a confident debut. However, the film is most likely to have a limited acceptance because of the urbane appeal and very contemporary conflict point which a majority of the Telugu audience aren’t familiar with.

Bottom-line : Fairly Engaging. But..

Rating – 2.5/5

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