Orange is a luridly vivid non-linear narrative with the smarts in all the right places. Captured in urban setting of Sydney, it is a genial, joyous, cynical, optimistic and yes ambiguous love story. Ambiguity and love may not go together in Indian film industry, but Baskar manages to tell the story and keep the attention of the audience.
The story begins like a playful flashback by a young man with an extraordinary jawline spraying graffiti on the portrait of a girl. Narrated to the Telugu-speaking police sergeant played by Prakash Raj, it is about Ram (Ram Charan Tej) for whom photography is wildlife photography and painting is graffiti. He begins by telling about his first crush, his teacher, when he was five and how he drew her painting, owned it up in the class, and gave the teacher a rose. And as he begins telling one love story after another (the current crisis being about the 10th girl) the story falters as the folks in Sydney speak Telugu, there are rap numbers in a mongrel language and a hyperactive Jaan (Genelia) steps into the frame with her pigtails and two sidekicks. Her idea of love is a lottery, where the random man wins. Between the cynical serial monogamous Ram and bubbly Jaan, who sees love as a flame that never goes off is the taut story of quality of love and not the expression of love.
Ram tries to woo her, succeeds and then tells her that he cannot assure love forever. Cynical? Yes, but then Ram takes off on another love story.
As Ram flits between his love stories and the love stories of folks around him, he examines the hollowness of eternal love. He has this friend to prove his point: “four lies, three smses, two stale jokes and one flower,” is his motto.
In the process the myriad moods of love are captured. If Bommarillu brought attention to the parent-children relationship in a light-hearted way, Orange draws attention to couples in love. And it has a message: lovers always don't walk into the sunset.
Shahzan Padamsee with her effervescent smile, Brahmanandam with his superb comic timing impress despite being cast in brief roles. The music is peppy and helps develop the mood with a heavy dose of hip-hop influence.
