This love story goes down hill right from the start

‘Padi Padi Leche Manasu’ ticked all the right boxes as far as expectations went. It had the relatively under-rated yet a bright hero in the form of  Sharwanand paired with the sparkler of a heroine, Sai Pallavi who has a rare zing to her screen presence.  The publicity, which elevated the romantic angle between the two also guaranteed enough youth interest as the film hit the theatres along with three other releases in the penultimate week of the year.

A typical flashback into the cutesy interludes between the couple carries the film into the first hour in an excruciatingly slow manner. The setting is in Kolkata, another unusual locale choice favoured by a few Telugu film directors. Weaving in the local milieu by showing the heroine taking up social causes and performing in street plays, Hanu Raghavapudi, with a series of escapist flicks to his credit, gives her an activist overtone.  That is the only halo she has in an otherwise terribly disjointed and drag of a movie which really tests the patience of the viewer in the second half. 

All because the hero camouflages his commitment phobia by referring to the unhappy lives of his parents and says marriage is a sureshot route to trouble and misery. Of course, the besotted beloved does not agree and then both of them split to meet a year later in Kathmandu where an earthquake separates them again. No doubt, this prolongs their agonies and also that of the audience till the film shudders to a close.

While on the one hand, the leading lady is shown as a spunky, no-nonsense type, she puts up with all that nonsensical stalking that the hero does and worse justifies it as the film goes on! There is nothing striking about Sai Pallavi’s role or performance and Sharwanand is seen lost and directionless, much like the film itself. In short, this venture is nothing better than those shaky, amateurish short films produced by rank newcomers and proudly posted over digital media.