Nag Ashwin’s Yevade Subrahmanyam (2015) Movie Review

Star Cast: Nani, Malavika Nair, Nassar, Kireeti Dharmaraju, Pavithra Lokesh, Ritu Varma & Vijay
Director: Nag Ashwin
Music Director: Radhan
Censor Certificate: U
Runtime: 145 Minutes

Subrahmanyam (Nani), an aspiring, young businessman, who believes in “Life lo nuvu evvaro annedi nee bank balance thone telusthundi”. Works in Pasupathi Industries and makes Mr. Pasupathi’s (Nassar) dream come true by taking over maximum shares of Ramaiah Company headed by Krishnam Raju. Foreseeing Subbu’s hard work behind this important deal, Riya accepts his love and gets engaged. At this time, Rishi (Vijay) comes from Goa and starts pressuring Subbu for the special trip to Dudh Kaasi. But things turn around and Ramaiah gets back his max. percent of shares from his shareholders. Pasupathi blames Subbu for this and Riya (Ritu) forces him to close the deal before she leaves to America. Shockingly, in next few days Subbu starts his Dudh Kaasi tour with Anandi (Malavika Nair). Why is Rishi not participating in this special journey to Dudh Kaasi? Who is Anandi and what’s her relationship with Subrahmanyam? Thing go all awkward way when Subbu finds himself falling for Anandi, when he is set to start his new life with Riya soon.

Performance wise it’s a Nani movie entirely where he leads from the front with his simple yet interesting characterization. His brainiac and soft dialogue delivery wins over the viewers in the initial scenes itself. Malavika Nair tries very hard to act real but it’s the fault of the misleading promos that her character looks like lacking the refreshing and interesting look shown in the promotional campaign of the film. Otherwise she has done a fine job in the role of an ultra-energized youngster. Vijay is adequate in his important role while Ritu Varma hams it up as Subbu’s fiancé. Nasser, Pavithra Lokesh, the person who played the role of a guide plays their roles impact fully.

Following the trend of self-discovery (Patas, Temper) in Tollywood, Yevade Subrahmanyam follows the deep down journey to Dudh Kaasi (Akasha Ganga) to full fill a promise and to find the real meaning of life. But this film suffers from its inconsistent and weak screenplay. The important track between Nani – Vijay as they argue on a point that’s was not in their hands and the track between Malavika and Nani is insipid devoid of any moments whatsoever. The major issue with the film is cards are laid out too early in the screenplay as it unfolds thus making the film highly predictable. Debutant director Nag Ashwin failed to handle emotions to narrate a romantic film.

The film even fails to connect the viewer on any level. You are unable to identify with Nani and move on with him, his thoughts and feelings and this is a major flaw in the film. Thus you don’t feel for him at all and in this regard in the end of the film falls particularly flat. The narration too is flat and stolid with inane dialogues. A film like this should be full of memorable moments, glance here or a look there but sadly all that is missing in favor of cockeyed theatrics. And the Krishnam Raju’s angle does nothing for the film.

Technically too, the film has very little to offer. The camera work is so-so. Though the film is mounted on a lavish scale, the locales be it Kolkata, Everest and Hyderabad seem under-utilized. Musically O Manishi is well composed and the best of the lot. The song picturisations are nothing to write home about while the background score shows desperation to try and bring the film to life but doesn’t quite succeed. The unnecessary haults while travelling in the second half could have been easily trimmed as this section of the film seems much too long. The production values of Swapna Cinemas are grand.

The biggest mistake I made was watching the theatrical trailer of Yevade Subrahmanyam.  If you’ve seen the trailers, you’ve seen almost the 40-50 minutes of the film because the bits that don’t make it to the trailers are mere fill in the blanks to the viewers. Although the entire film is foreseeable, the climax deviates from the regular zone making the film two notches below what it might have been promising. The problem though is that the narrative throughout the film seems drab and flat, and thus the film fails to stay with audience by the end. All in all, Promising promos of Yevade Subrahmanyam will lure the audience to go and watch this rom-com but after viewing the complete picture, you will feel you are in the middle of dim tale of self-discovery.

Survi Review: 2/5

Theatrical Trailer: