#Balu Geetha Review: Marital Woes Test Your Patience

#Balu Geetha Review

BOTTOM LINE
Marital Woes Test Your Patience

PLATFORM
ETV Win

RUNTIME
2 Hrs 11 Mins.

What Is the Show About?

Owing to a past heartbreak, Balu is against the idea of marriage, despite pressure from his parents. When his excuses no longer work, he is pushed into meeting Geetha, a vibrant woman with a clear mind. Their courtship miraculously translates into marriage, but the honeymoon phase lasts only a few months, until Balu listens to a voice message on his better half’s phone.

Performances

The film’s lead pair, Sandeep Saroj and Keyuri, show flashes of spunky on screen chemistry, though the writing fails to capitalise on it beyond a point. While both actors hold the fort with confident, assured performances, you wish they had been given something more substantial.

Ditto with Lahari Paricharla as Shruthi, the female bestie in Balu’s life, who is reduced to a mere flashback without much flesh to her role. The more well known faces, from Krishnudu to Bindu Chandramouli and Kedar Shankar, are handed templated supporting roles that are familiar but too fleeting.

Analysis

One understands that OTTs are the right medium for storytellers to experiment with relatively feeble or abstract ideas, just as much as substantial, character driven dramas. Yet creative freedom also results in projects that are neither here nor there, leaving you wanting more.

#Balu Geetha, directed by Pratap Kollareddy, wants to be a simple marriage drama about the little nothings between a newly wed couple and their struggles to deal with each other’s pasts. Everything about it is designed to feel easy and convenient: breezy conversations, multiple flashbacks and a happy ever after ending. However, none of the interpersonal relationships really work.

Balu keeps evading marriage at home owing to a recent heartbreak involving a girl who has friend zoned him. He has a nagging dad, a mother confined to the kitchen, a friendly boss at work, random friends whining about their wives, and relatively older men doling out relationship advice.

When he decides to give a prospective match, Geetha, a chance, something clicks. She is written as the ideal partner, but a more grounded one: quite transparent with her emotions, outgoing, easy to converse with and unmindful of apologising whenever she is wrong. The alliance naturally clicks, and the honeymoon phase lasts for a while.

After a lot of rambling, it takes more than halfway through the film to arrive at its conflict, which the film is not quite serious about: a voice message on Geetha’s phone that shatters Balu. Instead of voicing his concerns, he makes up stories in his head, paving the way for friction and random rants with friends.

The film falls apart due to a silly, one note childhood track about unrequited love. It takes itself too seriously without offering anything substantial. By the end, a revelation about each other’s formative years is thrown in to surprise you, but it feels like a tame creative liberty to resurrect the narrative to some extent.

#Balu Geetha loses a chance to flesh out its most interesting segment: a platonic equation between a man and a woman. Even with the lead pair, the woman is still made out to be the ideal partner, empathetic and forgiving, while there is no real evolution in the man’s psyche. He comes across as too self centred and impulsive.

Balu and Geetha’s relationship works best in the phase before their marriage. There is some spark in their conversations as they share a buddy like equation, but the interesting elements do not quite add up neatly. With a sharper start and better written flashbacks, the film could have garnered more momentum.

A problem with most Telugu films, both on the big screen and OTTs, is their derivative writing. Much of it is not born out of creative imagination or lived in experiences, but rather from referencing or tweaking something that has worked in the past, with little originality in dialogue, music or directorial style.

#Balu Geetha could have been an intimate, feel good drama about a couple coming to terms with each other. However, the plot is too thin, vague and uninteresting to sustain your attention for a couple of hours.

Music and Other Departments?

Kalyan Nayak’s music is a disappointment. Everything from the singing to the lyrics and composition feels too casual and amateurish, like work done out of an obligation to meet a deadline. The cinematography by Rehan Shaik, though, is a breath of fresh air. The lighting, bright colours and vivid visuals lend texture to the result. The dialogues work only in parts, and the writing is mostly devoid of freshness and depth.

Highlights?

Lead pair’s performances

Light hearted theme

Drawbacks?

Weak, simplistic writing

Shaky childhood episodes and initial portions

Poor music

Did I Enjoy It?

No.

Will You Recommend It?

It is light and breezy, but too conveniently written, eventually ending in disappointment. Even if you keep your expectations in check, it is not quite worthwhile.

#Balu Geetha ETV Win Movie Reviewed by M9 News