Story: What happens when Basti Balaraju, a mortuary van driver, experiences love at first sight on seeing a widow (Mallika) when she’s paying her last tributes to her deceased husband?
Chaavu Kaburu Challaga movie review: Chaavu Kaburu Challaga has quite an unrealistic and challenging conflict point — falling in love with a widow and winning her heart. While the film’s director Koushik Pegallapati has picked up an off-beat plotline, he hasn’t been able to execute it appropriately. Logically, such a story should be packed with heavy emotions, but the film ends up being a tedious outing.
The story should have been narrated from Balaraju’s point of view and imagination, at least until the interval. But the director opens the conflict point 45 minutes into the film. And before that, there are three songs! Isn’t that too much for a film in which most of the important characters go through a miserable time in their lives?
But Kaushik, a debutant, deserves a pat on the back for picking up a plot that would have tested even the best of filmmakers. There are times where his peculiar characters trigger laughter, and there’s also a bit of freshness in the penning of Balaraju’s mother Aamani’s role. Her layered character definitely helped strengthen the film’s core plot. In fact, her subplot is more convincing than the main storyline.
Writing is where the film has fundamentally gone wrong. It has the required canvas and setting, but lacks gripping narration and defining moments. It has unnecessary songs at uneven intervals. The pre-climax scene is worth mentioning, but it comes too late). Kaushik tried to keep things taut by offering us characters who aren’t all normal, but the film fails to keep the spark alive in the characters, leaving them flat.
At times, the screenplay offers implausible situations one after another, and you kind of zone out. Anasuya’s special number in the part where Balaraju celebrates Mallika’s deceased husband Peter’s birthday, seems exaggerated.
The film has its share of good moments but they’re not good enough to drive and sustain the emotions. Most of the scenes leading to the emotional core of the film do not pack a punch. In the end, you don’t have empathy with Balaraju.
Karthikeya needs to be applauded for choosing a role that doesn’t have heroics or a larger-than-life image. He delivers a convincing performance! His rustic Vizag accent and his body language perfectly complement his role. His dialogue delivery during emotional scenes, especially in the pre-climax scene, is a big draw.
Lavanya Tripathi as the widowed nurse and Murali Sharma (Mallika’s father-in-law) are adequate. Overall, the film is high on melodrama and low on emotions
