A lot of people wear branded stuff because it projects an image they want the world to see. This brand fetish is an extension of Ratnam’s (Murali Sharma) personality, even his son Diamond (Sumanth Shailendra) shares his aversion for the poor and the middle class.
When the story takes off it looks silly and funny when their domestic help wipes a banana and serves it on a plate; as the help keeps slicing it, the hero eats it with a fork. A few such instances make you smile but as the story progresses the smile turns to a frown. There are too many sequences of the family’s fetish for brands and a high class lifestyle, and you can actually count the number of times Murali Sharma uses the word ‘brand’.
Diamond is led, by mistake, to profess love for Radha (Esha Rebba) who is a maid in the home minister’s house. When he realises his folly he not only distances himself from her but his family humiliates Radha and her working class community. The rest of the story is about how she wins their heart.
Midway through the film it’s very clear that the writing and direction has gone haywire. A righteous and proud Radha wants to return the Louis Vuitton bag gifted to her by Diamond and they both end up sharing a sandwich over a meaningless, pointless conversation. It’s a struggle to find out from Diamond’s expressionless face whether he loves or hates her. The few sporadic laughs are short lived. The jokes turn juvenile; as the servants in Ratnam’s home boycott them, the hero’s family struggles to feed themselves. The second half is predictable, but you nevertheless wait to see how it unfolds. There is an accident and Ratnam is hospitalized; an avid moviegoer presumes only the maid’s blood group matches Ratnam’s and a change of his heart follows.
Ironically, in this small budget film, there is hardly any difference between branded clothes that the Babu’s family wears and the stuff that Esha wears; some disparity would have helped. The film slumps as there are no spirited dialogues for Esha. Rising to wealth doesn’t seem a strong enough reason for Murali Sarma’s strange behavior. A hero with better acting chops could have elevated writer Maruti’s story but here only Esha Rebba and Murali Sarma salvage the situation. Watch it if you have nothing better to do.
Brand Babu
Cast : Esha Rebba, Sumanth Shailendra
Direction : Prabhakar Podakandla
Music : JB
