Movie review ‘Oka Criminal Prema Katha’: This time, it fails to make an impact

Cast: Manon Nandam, Priyanka Pallavi and others

Director: P Sunil Kumar Reddy

Rating: **

Director P Sunil Kumar Reddy is known for making films with social causes. His earlier films ‘Sontha Vooru’ and ‘Gangaputrulu’ were made with realistic themes and went on to win awards. His ‘Oka Romantic Prema Katha’ was a crime thriller and touched upon issues such as teen love, sex and abortions. The film was received well. Now, he has again chosen a dark subject – abuse against women at the domestic level. Unlike his earlier films though, this film, which shows how an innocent boy becomes a criminal for the sake of love, is not convincing.

Srinu (Manoj Nandam) is an orphan and works as a video photographer in a village. He falls in love with Bindu (Priyanka Pallavi) a college student in the same village. Bindu moves to Vizag as her father falls sick and they stay in her uncle’s (Satyanand) house due to financial constraints. Srinu follows Bindu to Vizag and takes up a job as a canteen boy in the same college where Bindu studies. At home, trouble unfolds for Bindu. Her uncle uses their financial weakness to his advantage and starts to abuse the girl and molests her. Bindu asks her boyfriend to help her. How Srinu helps her out and what the final solution is forms the remaining part of the story.

Sunil Kumar Reddy always chooses dark subjects as his film stories. In this film he wanted to highlight abuse suffered by women in domestic scenarios and the chilling fact that such cases never come out. A college girl is molested by her uncle, her parents know about it, but can’t do anything because of their financial situation. A boy in love with the girl, puts his life in danger to help her out. The director’s aim is good, but the way the story has been depicted on screen is not convincing. Maybe he has targeted only college students and youth and not kept family audiences in mind. That’s why unlike his earlier films, ‘Oka Criminal Prema Katha’ fails to make an impact.

Moreover, the director concentrates on the scenes showing the uncle molesting the young girl. Similar focus is not shown on solutions. There are a couple of shocking scenes in the film where the impression of oral sex is given. Scenes of this kind are a first in Telugu films and are definitely not meant for a family audience. Apart from that, college girls are shown to be exchanging jokes on adultery and talking about it too.

Manon Nandam plays the lead character Srinu and he has delivered a nice performance. His innocence and other emotions are depicted well. He certainly has a bright future as an actor. Priyanka Pallavi plays the college girl Bindu and she too has acted very well, even in some of the bold scenes. The other notable character is Satyanand, who plays Bindu’s uncle.

In real life Satyanand teaches acting to many top actors of Tollywood and now he has given an excellent practical demonstration of his acting abilities.

Though the actors’ performances are good, the film does not offer any message to the audience. The director has tried to attempt something different, but not in a very convincing way. The publicity posters and his earlier films may bring in college youth, but this film is definitely not for all.

Watch the trailer of the film here: