J Prabhakar Reddy’s Prema Katha Chitram (2013) Movie Review

Cast: Nandini, Sudheer Babu, Sapthagiri, Praveen

Director: J Prabhakar Reddy

Censor Certificate: A

Runtime: 130 Minutes

Music: JB

Watched at Sandya 70mm, Hyderabad

Maruthi’s third venture(credited with Direction Supervision and rest of other crafts) is a cleverly attempted gag catered to humor starving audience of Telugu Cinema. The point being the gag is delayed till the interval and runs too long but escapes the risk of being categorized as prolonged.

The movie starts on a serious note with a take on suicides and introducing the main characters – Sudheer and Nandini who are love failures meet their common friend Praveen who plans their death in a near by farm house. They are joined by Saptagiri who wishes to join them on their mission. The writing is so poor and the dialogues are so ineffective. Though the film gives a dejavu of Itlu Sravani Subramaniam but the treatment is so amateurish and the only agenda seems to fill the first half with some content. Sudheer Babu who mastered his diction with RP Patnaik delivers a matured performance but is limited to his role only in first half, he becomes a mute spectator to Nandini who is terrific in the role of a girl who is affected by special conditions. Double meaning dialogues are injected in between but make no impact as the story seems to be going on a serious note.

The movie picks momentum towards the end of first half where the twist in the plot slowly uncovers and the erotic plus horror angle comes into picture. The characters are still the same but the annoying scenes in the first half some how make the characters register in your mind so much that the scenes involving them in the second half appear funny. Saptagiri steals the show in the second half and brings the house down. The movie is let down by a poorly written climax but the viewer does not mind since he already know that he got cheated because he came to watch a Love Story which had a horror backdrop in the first half but turned out a laughter riot but gets satisfied because it is worth the buck he spent.

Music by JB is good. I just Love you Baby stands out but the songs are poorly placed or stop the flow of the movie. Cinematography and editing are decent. The erotic angle which started before the interval was under developed and it could have boosted the merits of the film. Production values are great considering the movie was made in a shoe string budget. 

PKC is a laughter marathon for people who go with zero expectations because they can bear the first half to rejoice in the second half but a boring fare for audience who expected a novel movie out of it.

Theatrical Trailer: