Every summer vacation, you need a love story to daydream about, an action film to urge you into getting fit, a ‘no-brainer’ comedy to pass your time and sentimental tear-jerker to bring the family together. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realise that Gunde Jaari Gallantaayinde (GJG) is your quintessential romantic comedy for the summer. It has everything — a fresh look, foreign locales, a little bit of dishoom-dishoom and of course a happy ending. Besides, it owes a lot to Pawan Kalyan and his Tholi Prema; the references are aplenty and the obsession is discernible.
GJG is about cross-connections, love-at-first sight versus emotional connection. Karthick (Nitin), a software employee is also a self professed love guru who likes to live life on his own terms. He spots Shriya (Isha Tawalar) at a wedding and believes that he has found ‘the one’ for him. He procures her number, only to have the numbers jumbled and so he ends up dialling Shravani (Nitya) believing her to be Shriya.
Shravani has a grand idea of love — where she would like to fall in love with someone based entirely on his personality without having her judgement clouded by background, financials etc. The two hit it off, each concocting their own idea about the other. Meanwhile, Karthick coaches his friend to express his love to someone (who is later revealed to be Shriya) and Karthick flips out because he accuses her of cheating on him. The love story isn’t merely triangular or quadrilateral, but is definitely angular as sub-plots of revenge follow up. Nitin looks suave and fresh, his performance too is noteworthy. Nitya Menen offers no variety and perhaps that can be blamed on the nature of the character. Music was peppy, but we could do without a few songs, including the one with Jwala Gutta which offers nothing but cheap thrills.
The idea is not entirely unique — taking the semblance of a physical identity out of the story is fine, but considering that we live in a world where everything has an online presence — including the colony’s vegetable vendor, it is impossible to think of forging relationships over long distance, especially when instant gratification is the key. Try imagining a relationship built purely on the premise of an ‘emotional connect’ without physical interaction — seems archaic and impossible? Yes. The plot relies on many twists but most of them fall flat. The plot is at times stretched like pizza dough meant for a table of 20; and when that happens you start shifting in your seat and finally give in with a loud sigh.
The film offers a few genuine laughs and makes the experience enjoyable. But there are some jokes which will make an intelligent person cringe, especially when gay and transsexual people are stereotyped to be sex-obsessed. Surely, the Telugu film industry could do without reinforcing such negative stereotypes. This is an ideal second or third date movie, when the expectations to impress are rather low, but the film is cheerful enough to take you to the next date!
GUNDE JAARI GALLANTAAYINDE
Cast: Nitin, Nitya Menen
Director: Vijay Kumar Konda
Genre: Romantic comedy
Plot: A cross-communication, a tale of falling in and out of love
Bottomline: Rough around the edges
