Surya Pratap’s Kumari 21F (2015) Movie Review

Surya Pratap’s Kumari 21F (2015) Movie Review

Movie Review: Kumari 21F
Opened on November 20th 2015
Star Cast: Raj Tarun, Hebah Patel, Hema, Noel, Sudhershan, Thagubothu Ramesh and Zara Khan
Director: Surya Pratap
Cinematographer: R Rathnavelu
Censor Certificate: A
Runtime: 132 Minutes

Meena Kumari (Hebah Patel) is a free spirited, pretty and fun lass. She is a model, and works in film industry. One such night, she meets up with happy go lucky guy Siddhu (Raj Tarun) and falls in love in the first instance. Suddenly, Kumari is on a mission, to woo the guy of her dreams, no matter what it costs. The string unbinding both Kumari and Siddhu is the past of her with some serious issue.  On the other side, his best friends Shankar (Noel Sean) – Photolu Suresh (Naveen Neni) – Seenu (Sudhershan) do their living by doing some illegal stuff. As Siddhu’s budding love starts to blossom, he finds out some unbelievable truths regarding Kumari from the besties. How did she react the doubt? What’s that shocking incident Siddhu found out? Will Siddhu ever be able to understand the magic in unconditional love forms the rest of the storyline.

Raj Tarun fits the bill perfectly with his debonair demeanor and elusive acting. Emoting well with his eyes, he is fantastic outright in emotional and important sequences. Hebah Patel looks pretty as a free spirited gal and she spends most of the movie stealing the show from the lead character. Credit should go to her dubbing artist Lipsika too, as the combined output was the one impressed that me to the core.  Raj Tarun’s friends Noel, Sudhershan and Naveen did quite a good job in their roles and Noel deserves a special brownie point for his mean histrionics. Hema, Tagubothu Ramesh and the actor who did Siddhu’s father role are spontaneous in their short roles. Zara Khan is fine in the special song.

Story of Kumari 21Ftries to portray the contemporary love, where relations are based on conditional love and less emotional empathy. Sukumar has handled some heavy duty themes in the past and in this latest outing, Kumari 21F, he tries to convey, Love is to love someone for who they are, who they were, and who they will be with unconditional acceptance. Sukumar and director Surya Pratap have opted for a common place and yet highly identifiable theme for Kumari 21F that pokes two figures on the present day love and asks to stand up for true love of their life. And In short it remind us of films like Lila Says (2004) and Secret In Their Eyes in parts. The films story is somewhat half baked.  It doesn’t force you to think, or drag us into the characters which are flawed, thirsting for love and relations are bogged down by the past. Director Surya Pratap pits the film wrong and had he presented it as a realistic love story more and fiction tale less, it would have worked better. If Sukumar had handled the megaphone, the things could have been a lot better. The problem with the film is it doesn’t culminate correct. Its weak in many places and pics up slow. The tempo flatters in Many Places and mostly blighted with loopy myopia that despite a different storytelling and narration the only problem is its vision limited to films beauty.

The director even left out few logics like, girl said to be a punch-drunk, but she still has a dark past, she is not completely proud off. There is even no proper account why she wants to gives everything the lad asked for with such a painful past. And its very hard to believe why the independent-bold model falls for lean and happy go lucky guy in the same colony and start teasing – literally dating with him in a short time. At a time when the actress is raped by three people in an unconscious state fails to recall what happened to her.Seriously?; Director never really tries to solve the case with friends even though the cops have enough evidence to book them for lifetime; Whats more shocking is son believing his father to be a cheat just by seeing a female & child footwear at doorstep.  what’s even more surprising is no one tells him that for twenty long years even after staying in same fucking colony. etc. Coming to other technicalities, Cinematographer R Rathnavelu’s frames are slick and togged up and the musical score by Devi Sri Prasad leave significant mark on the audience. Editing is the biggest letdown in the film. Good editor could have taken the film up by many notches. Production Values of Sukumar Writing is good.

Kumari 21F is not the usual run of the mil movie which is designed to entertain audience. Watching it with such an intent can be disappointing. Also labelling it as a Sukumar film will heighten the expectation. Instead watch the movie for its different depiction and muse over some of the questions that the movie poses. All in all, Kumari 21F is a mixed bag. Its not a good film. But its a different and largely well-crafted piece of cinema (Largely inspired from Laila Says) about unconditional love in present day relations in Telugu cinema.

నువ్వు నమ్మితే నిజం, లేకపోతే అది అబద్ధమ్… అదే జీవితం

Survi Review: 2/5 

Theatrical Trailer: