BOTTOM LINE
This Rural Comedy Is a Royal Mess
RATING
1.5/5
PLATFORM
PRIME VIDEO
What Is the Film About?
Chitti Jaya Puram, a village, faces a shortage of burial plots in its graveyard. Apoorva, the newly appointed village head, is struggling to find her footing after the sudden death of her father, Subbaraju. She teams up with Chinna, the graveyard caretaker, to resolve the crisis. However, as time progresses, the village descends into chaos, losing its way, fighting over the right to a dignified burial.
Performances
Keerthy Suresh struggles to find her element in a part as half-baked as her performance. She should’ve been the powerhouse that salvaged the film from its weak spots, yet her portrayal makes you feel quite the opposite. There’s no doubt about Suhas’s abilities, but one can’t simply make a career by doing different versions of the same role – the marginalised, vulnerable man craving for identity.
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Veterans Babu Mohan and Rameshwari are given little to play with. Sivannarayana’s priest role is as unfunny as it gets, and Duvvasi Mohan (or his role, perhaps?) is too erratic to make his presence felt. Vishnu Oi is wasted in a meaningless character, while Shatru and Prabhavathi Varma are reduced to typical, templated roles they’d have done a zillion times in the past. Subhalekha Sudhakar’s blink-and-a-miss role is forgettable.
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Analysis
While death is typically no laughing matter, Ani I V Sasi’s second Telugu film, Uppu Kappurambu, tries to extract humour from a peculiar situation: villagers bickering over burial space. Compounding the chaos, the village leadership lies in the hands of Apoorva, a confused young woman thrust into the role after inheriting it from her father, Subbaraju, the former head.
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Apoorva is forced to find a solution to a tricky issue when Chinna, the graveyard caretaker, states that only four burial plots remain vacant. Through a lottery, they manage to temporarily alleviate the crisis, only for the region to be flummoxed by a flurry of sudden deaths. As pressure mounts on Apoorva to pursue other alternatives, the village finds itself in a complete deadlock.
Set in the 90s, the writer Vasanth Maringanti frees the story from any real-time references or logic. It’s a premise born out of a farcical situation involving a handful of oddball characters – a misfit yet innocent village head, a marginalised good at heart caretaker, an elderly man desperate for power, a spoilt brat who tries to wield his influence in every odd situation.
The film’s screenplay is packed with one funny situation after another, though it simply doesn’t know how to translate its ideas onto the screen effectively. The self-deprecating humour just doesn’t land, the dialogues are poorly fleshed out, and the actors go overboard with their performances. Despite its appreciable call for brotherhood within the village, you’re ultimately left feeling emotionless.
The balance between the drama and the farce completely goes for a toss, making it incredibly hard to discern what the film is trying to be. While the concept itself is undoubtedly quirky, the writing and execution do nothing to make the viewer truly buy into its eccentricities. One is quite aware of how potent a tool death can be to discuss a whole gamut of issues, yet, barring the final ten minutes, you find yourself scratching your head in confusion.
The characters, despite enthusiastic introductions, lack any depth beyond their one-dimensional portrayal. Chinna’s trauma is ignored throughout the film (until a climax is desperate to change your view), and even his mother Kondamma’s plight elicits little care. What is Apoorva beyond her title as village head? What are her dreams made of? And what are Bheemayya and Madhu Babu truly up to, beyond their wacky attempts to create trouble at village gatherings?
The screenplay eventually runs out of steam, over-relying on its ‘concept’ to deliver. It could have made a better effort to build its village backdrop or, at the very least, its lead characters. Instead, we get a messy film that tries to be a comedy for about 75% of its runtime, regressing over trivial aspects, then suddenly remembers it’s supposed to weave in a message.
Uppu Kappurambu is a messy rural comedy with little going for it beyond its absurdly appealing premise, whether it be the performances, the humour, or the characters themselves. For someone like Ani I V Sasi, who made a decent debut with Ninnila Ninnila (back in 2021), this second outing is a disappointment, despite the stellar team at his disposal.
Music and Other Departments?
Composer Sweekar Agasthi continues to get a raw deal with his projects; it’s disappointing to see him lose his way amidst the mediocrity of the scripts. Divakar Mani’s cinematography makes the film watchable, but this is far from his best. While the screenplay is packed with intriguing events, the dialogues, performances and the wayward execution don’t do justice to its ideas. Even with its 135-minute runtime, the film is still a patience-tester.
Highlights?
Quirky premise
The use of death to deliver a poignant message
The climax
Drawbacks?
Aimless execution
Humour doesn’t land
Poor writing, dialogues
Did I Enjoy It?
Not really
Will You Recommend It?
No
Uppu Kappurambu OTT Movie Review by M9
