Cold Comfort

Our good-for-nothing hero (Aadi) hates to be compared. Especially, when it is with his neighbour’s son (Chaitanya Krishna) who is his frenemy of sorts. While the intelligent fellow’s father does not miss a chance to rub it in, the wayward bloke’s parent is at his wit’s end.

From here on, if you have guessed that the hero will prove his mettle and be one up on his tormentor classmate at the end of it all, then the scenes unfold exactly in the same manner you have visualised it.

That is the power of Telugu cinema, with its easy-to-untie knots and typical twists and turns. Film after film, be it of superstars or wannabes play safe thus aiming to stay firmly in the terribly predictable formula fare. ‘Garam’ starring Aadi Pudipeddi and Adah Sharma too is stubbornly stereotyped.

With a normal kind of looks and the body language suited to that of a street-smart kind, Aadi right fits into the mould reserved for the modern day heroes of Tollywood-one with petty eve teasing behaviour, riff-raffish demeanour etc.

The director, R R Madan, feels this is enough for him to stay the course and showcases the changeover of his personality, only as the fellow characters see him. Once his father, fed up with his antics back home pushes him off to Hyderabad, he lands with his friend (Shakalaka Shankar) in town.

The film progresses tediously from here on, showing a group hunting for a person in a photograph (identity revealed only in the end reels), an unbearably aggressive bad man happy chopping meat with relish, a heroine who hides behind a burqa, only to prance around wearing hideous costumes during song sequences and some such random people.

Ultimately, the bad good boy and the good boy show the world that friendship is above all. For this message to be conveyed, the director brings in mindless diversions and tiring action shots with a weak reasoning of fraud education consultancy racket to justify it.

Brahmanandam and Posani do not evoke mirth and surprisingly Prudhvi who is now among the top comedians, comes in a blink-and-miss comic sequence.

Equally mystifying is the reason why heroine Adah Sharma is shown as a Muslim and the suspense behind that is hardly one. If you are wanting to enjoy red-hot entertainment, this ‘Garam’ may be too naram for your expectations.

Film Name : Garam

Cast : Aadi and Adah Sharma

Direction : Madan

Genre : Romance-action

Likes : Theme based on friendship

Dislikes : Hackneyed approach to story-telling and irrelevant characters one too many