Papam Prathap Movie Review

With films like George Reddy, Palasa 1978, Masooda and The Great Pre-Wedding Show, Thiruveer earned the goodwill of the audience. He is one of those very few promising young & upcoming heroes, we have in the Telugu film industry currently. His last film, The Great Pre-Wedding Show, may not have done well in theatres but the audience received it very well when it was released on OTT.

After receiving very good appreciation and earning the trust of the audience with his last film, Thiruveer teamed up with ETV WIN and the director, SP Durga Naresh, for ‘Papam Prathap’, a romantic comedy film. Though his last film received good reviews when it was released in theatres, it did not reach out to the audience well because of the poor promotion. But this time around, Thiruveer and his team promoted, Papam Prathap, aggressively for the last couple of weeks and released the film in theatres today. Did Thiruveer, manage to deliver a commercial success film with Papam Prathap? Did ETV WIN deliver yet another content-rich film? How did the director, SP Durga Naresh, execute the film? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Prathap (Thiruveer) marries his childhood sweetheart, Bujjamma (Payal Radhakrishna). After spending three nights with Prathap post-wedding, Bujjamma decides to tell him something at the village panchayat. She says he has an issue but refuses to specify what it is. She asks him to identify and resolve the problem, and until then, she does not want to live with him. What is the issue that Prathap, unknowingly, is dealing with? How did it affect his marriage and his reputation in the village? Did he eventually find a way to resolve the problem and reunite with his wife? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Thiruveer did a good job with his performance as always but there’s not much he can do to save the film that has ‘misfired’ written all over it at the writing table itself. Payal Radhakrishna in the female lead role looked good and delivered a decent performance. Ajay Ghosh in a full-length role entertained in parts but his impressive performance was undone by the over-the-top writing for his character. Goparaju Ramana’s performance and his track looked very odd. Senior actress, Raasi, in the role of a mother to the protagonist character, delivered a decent performance.

Raghu Babu, Srinivas Avasarala, Prasad Behara and a few others, the film had a good number of well-known actors but almost all of them appeared lost. None of the characters’ and actors performances in those characters, impresses the audience.

Technicalities:

Cinematography by Vishweshwar S.V, is pleasant to the eyes throughout the film. He captured the picturesque locales of the Godavari district very well with his camera. K. M. Radha Krishnan, who scored music for films like ‘Anand’, ‘Godavari’, etc., composed the songs for the film. All the songs in the film were in his usual style but they did not create much of an impact. Suresh Bobbili’s background score was alright. Editing by Anwar Ali is poor to say the least. The film dragged on forever for no reason. At least twenty minutes of the film, could have been easily edited to make it crisp. Let’s discuss the work of the director and the production house, in detail in the analysis section.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Interesting Conflict Point
2.⁠ ⁠Ajay Ghosh’s Comedy In Parts

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Screenplay
2.⁠ ⁠Outdated Writing & Direction
3.⁠ ⁠Goparaju Ramana’s Obscene Track
4.⁠ ⁠Lengthy Runtime
5.⁠ ⁠Vulgar Dialogues
6.⁠ ⁠Farcical Comedy

Analysis:

Making concept-driven small films with the upcoming actors in the lead roles is always a double-edged sword. When executed well, these films give a very satisfactory feeling to the audience. But, when the execution goes for a toss, they test the patience of the audience and make it very difficult to sit through the film. Papam Prathap, falls under the latter category. It has a good concept which has the potential to become an entertaining film but a good concept alone cannot save a film. It needs to have a tight screenplay and gripping execution to engage the audience for two and a half hours. Unfortunately, the director, SP Durga Naresh, lost track while executing the film with aimless writing and dated execution.

Before getting into other aspects of the film, it is important to talk about the track featuring Goparaju Ramana. ETV Win is generally known for offering clean, family friendly content, so this particular track comes as a surprise. The humour in this portion feels out of place and does not match the platform’s usual standards, which may not sit well with regular viewers. It also raises questions about how such content was approved, as it stands out sharply from the rest of the film’s tone.

There is also a sequence involving Ajay Ghosh that feels poorly handled. The choice of language in that scene, including unmuted curse words, comes across as unnecessary and distracting. These elements do not add much value to the narrative and instead affect the overall experience.

The protagonist in the film is shown to have REM sleep behaviour disorder, a condition where a person physically acts out dreams while sleeping. The idea itself feels interesting and has good potential for a unique story. However, the way it is developed on screen lacks clarity at times. For example, the character has supposedly been dealing with this condition since childhood, yet he becomes aware of it only after his wife points it out, which feels a bit unconvincing. The wife’s reaction also comes across as unusual, as she asks him to figure out and cure the issue on his own instead of openly discussing it or suggesting medical help. The father’s character too behaves in a way that may feel inconsistent, as he knows about the problem but still shifts blame onto his daughter in law. These elements make parts of the film feel stretched and less focused.

Ajay Ghosh’s comedy timing during the initial twenty minutes of the film managed to evoke good laughs. The pre-interval sequence where the conflict point is revealed, was executed well. Apart from these two things, there’s not much to talk about the film. It looked as if, Thiruveer, took the feedback about the lack of promotions for his previous film seriously, put all his energies and effort into promoting the film aggressively but did not put enough effort into finalising the script. Sampradayaini Suppini Suddapusaani, in March and now, Papam Prathap, both the films from ETV WIN, had good concepts but ended up becoming damp squibs due to an unimpressive screenplay and execution.

Rating – 2.25/5

Bottomline – Poor Pratap