'101 Jillala Andagadu' arrived at the cinemas today (September 3). We present the review of the Friday release.
Story
Surya Narayana aka GSN (Avasarala Srinivas) is a young man whose biggest issue in life is premature baldness. He struggles to hide his 'flaw' from the world. GSN falls in love with his beautiful colleague Anjali (Ruhani Sharma), who doesn't know that he is bald. The concealment of the secret about his looks leads to some friction. How does GSN deal with it? What is Anjali's path? Answers to these questions are found in the second half.
Performances
A plus is that '101 Jillala Andagadu' is a well-performed movie. Srinivas was not enjoyable in 'Babu Baga Busy', but here he is impressive. He is comical for the most part. In the sentimental scenes, he could have been better. Ruhani Sharma, after last year's 'Dirty Hari', is seen in the role of a professional who talks less. As GSN's girlfriend, she makes sense in the way she approaches the relationship issues.
Rohini as the male lead's mother is good. Raman Bhargav and the rest of the cast fit the bill.
Technical aspects
Shaktikanth Karthik's songs go with the flow of the movie. It's a plus that there are no unbearable intrusions. The BGM should have reached the scale of a multiplex movie. The cinematography by Raam is adequate. There are no major location-oriented scenes in the movie and that's a minus.
The run-time is just about 122 minutes, so editor Kiran Ganti maintains the right length. A Ramanjaneyulu's art direction is ordinary.
Analysis
In 2019, two Bollywood films had a balding protagonist at the center of the plot: 'Bala' and 'Ujda Chaman'. Neither of them has inspired '101 Jillala Andagadu', which was admittedly written before their release. Writer Srinivas Avasarala, who is also the film's lead actor, doesn't give us a layered story. The writing is not superficial, but it's not nuanced either.
Much like the trailer, the film builds a series of jokes around premature balding. GSN's endless struggles hiding his 'ujda chaman' from the world are rib-tickling here and there. The writing also carries some sparks in terms of how the Telugu language is deployed.
The scenes between GSN and Anjali at the workplace are a major feature of the first half. The blossoming of the romance doesn't take much time. The romantic scenes are brief.
In the second half, the humour built around premature balding starts to seem monotonous. The wedding scenes could have been awesome. But they draw only a few laughs.
The climax trods the beaten path. Revealing anything more can be criminal, considering that stories like this one are not about events but dialogues. The mother-son trope is executed well in the final act of the movie.
Closing Remarks
'101 Jillala Andagadu' is content supplying clean humour rather than drama. But the comedy doesn't leave you in splits. It's a watchable movie and that's all can be said about it.
