A S Ravi Kumar Chowdary’s Soukyam (2015) Movie Review

A S Ravi Kumar Chowdary’s Soukyam (2015) Movie Review

Movie Review: Soukyam
‘Star Cast: Gopichand, Regina Cassendra, Posani Krishna Murali, Raghu Babu, Sowcar Janaki, Jaya Prakash Reddy, Ashutosh Rana, Brahmanandam, Pradeep Rawat & Mukesh Rushi.
Music Composed by Anup Rubens
Cinematography by Prasad
Production House: Bhavya Creations
Writers: Kona Venkat & Sridhar Seepana
Directed by A S Ravi Kumar Chowdary
Censor Certificate: UA; Runtime: 142 Minutes.

A jobless – reckless – careless Srinivas (Gopichand) is pampered “young”ster in the family consisting of parents and a set of uncle suffering from rare amnesia and an aunt. One fine day, Shailaja (Regina) enters Sreenu’s life and in a short time he proposes her. But things fall apart when Shailu challenges Sreenu’s destiny angle. Slowly but surely, Shailu falls in love with Sreenu. However, the obstacle in the story comes in the form of Shailaja’s father PR (Rajan) when he and his goons come and take her away with them. On the other hand, unknowingly Sreenu promises Bavuji (Pradeep Rawat) to bring back PR’s daughter for him. Shockingly, Shailu turns out to be the daughter of PR and now he has to save Shailu from the clutches of Bavuji-PR and also ensure that she is not forcibly married to anyone. Following the “Ready”made formula, Sreenu introduces Shailu to his weird family. Will she succeed in impressing Sreenu’s family? What happens when Shailu-Sreenu’s family exposed to truth? Do now Bavuji & PR go after Sreenu’s life? The latter part of the film answers these questions.

Gopichand is riding on the success of Loukyam. That´s it. While in Jil he gave a meaty performance, in Soukyam he doesn´t bother in the least to make some effort, and either sleep walks through the scenes completely benumbed / is simply himself. And though he looks great for his “age”, Gopichand just doesn´t look suitable for the roles of lover boys on this level. Regina Cassandra is good but her expressions don’t motley much. Pradeep Rawat and Rajan fit the bill as the baddies. Much hyped Baahubali spoof by Prudhvi, Apoorva, Jyothi, and Krishna Bhagwan is not appealing. Brahmanandam, Sapthagiri fails to entertain the crowd. The rest are all numbers added (Mukesh Rishi, Raghubabu, Hema, Sowcar Janaki, Posani Krishna Murali, Satya, Surekha Vani and Shivajiraja), much like the music to make the appeal look populated.

The plot borrowing from Serendipity (2011) and Ready (2011)– Involves “young” Sreenu and his family, understanding his father, and even altering PR’s, who is don and want Shailu to marry West Bengal CM’s son. The story is of course not much more than sum total of all that. Imagine two commercial hit writers working on this script including Kona Venkat and Gopi Mohan alongside Sridhar Seepana who filled in with dialogues. The result is this sententious amalgamation of Jay Jay (2003), Milenge Milenge (2010), Rebel (2012), Joru, Loukyam and many more of Kona-Gopimohan kind. The rhyming dialogues, spoofs and the slapstick routines appear to have been transferred from the other scripts and old re-runs. To prevent the thwarters, A S Ravi Kumar Chowdary dedicates this set to old loyalists of the comedy genre aiming for left-slanting legitimacy. But transpired on the screen is simply disgrace to everyone associated with the movie. This project by A S Ravi Kumar must have started out as an attempt to triple the fun quotient (with loads of spoof stuff) but what you get instead is triple the misery.

Coming to other technical aspects, the action assigned to Gopichand is badly orchestrated while the one shot at Ammoru Jathara, looks lot better than the rest. The action is a little too slipshod and way too perverse. The music by Anup Rubens is a mixed bag with its raunchy sceneries and half-baked melodies. The editor tries hard to paper over the short takes but the stretching is a little too improbable for a suitable fit. The shot taking gets curter and shorter till it comes to a point where you marvel whether the next shot is actually part of the same episode. Cinematography by Prasad Murrela is mediocre. The production values of Bhavya Creations are alright.

There is no story to tell here in “Soukhyam” other than sophisticated mix up of identities with unconvincing, implausible plotting and archaically hokey set ups. Sitting through this film is a very depressing experience. We see a lot of crummy writing, but a film as shopworn as this one deserves a peculiar call out. You would understand if amateurs were at work here, but the screenplay is by Kona Venkat – Gopi Mohan and actors of the calibre of Gopichand, Mukesh Rishi, Pradeep Rawat and Rajan have agreed to do this film. And yet, it decocts to one of the most claptrap outings at the theatres in recent times.

Survi Review: 0.5/5

Theatrical Trailer: