Roman tragedy

Title : Romeo
Cast : Sai Ram Shankar and Adoncia
Direction : Gopi Ganesh
Genre : Romance
Rating : ?
Like : Length
UnLike : The guts

Miss Giggle (Adonika) meets Mr Stare (Sai Ram Shankar) in Rome. Stare stalks Giggle. Stare, like Giggle, is roaming in Rome. Giggle has mom (Pragathi). Stare has relatives back home in Visakapatnam. Giggle is that travel hungry one out on the streets with a camera for company. Stare on the other hand is like something the cat left behind. Stare wins Giggle’s confidence and flicks her passport. Instead of returning it when the beans are spilled Stare reveals a “look like – love – tragedy” tale to Giggle. Miss Giggle is now Miss Scream.

Tucked away in US, Miss Giggle alias Miss Scream has Baddy Boyfriend (Subbaraju). Mr Stare had look alike girlfriend back home which he carries for baggage. Giggle look alike died in an accident leaving behind Sad Mom (Jayasudha) and also Mr Persuasion (Ravi Teja). Long distance phone calls from Vizag where Mr Stare’s family resides, to Rome and also between Giggle’s Mom and Baddie Boyfriend leads to Roman tragedy. This is Roman holiday gone wrong all the way. While the pre-interval tale builds up a half-hearted curiosity, the post coffee session goes berserk. If you are expected to be marginally sane, ‘says who’ is the directorial response.

While the heroine is unimpressively eager to get into hot pants, shoot with her video camera and go singing (off key) in Italy, the hero stares at everything and anybody as if he was struck by lightning. He is committed to the stare through every reel of the film. He stalks, she screams. He stares, she giggles. He commands, she succumbs. Even as the camera pans a picturesque Rome (PG Vinda), you get edgy and on your nerves frantically hoping for a fast-forward button.

At one stage, the hero remarks of the heroine that she has great clarity even when drunk. The reverse is tragically true about the director (Gopi Ganesh). In the most sane moments the film lacks direction and purpose. It is amazing that one dares a full length feature film with not just a scriptful of pot-holes but with an imagination that could give a moron a superiority complex. Every creative artist arguably carries a streak of madness. But to survive on a large chunk of it and just that could lead to a disastrous product. The filmmaker could justifiably claim the wooden spoon. He has a team that works in perfect tandem with him. While the gal is dumb-stuck with Rome, the guy is just dumb.

This is Tragedy of Errors meets Romeo and Juliet. While others salute the Bard, Gopi Ganesh decides to slap him. Every creative artist at some stage of his career does look at Shakespeare for inspiration. The likes of Vishal Bharadwaj even salute the Bard. This is a slap to the Bard. The references to Romeo and Juliet are trite. With one central character who is hypochondriacal and the other flibbertigibbet you have on hand a product that inspires a protest walk out and nothing more.