'Paarijatha Parvam' is produced by Mahidhar Reddy and Devesh. In this section, we are going to review the latest box-office release.
Plot:
Chaithanya (Chaitanya Rao Madadi) and his friend Harsha (Harsha Chemudu) live in Hyderabad, daydreaming about becoming a filmmaker and a hero, respectively. In the same town lives Seenu (Sunil), also a wannabe actor who is destined to become a don. When pushed to the corner and left with no resources, the Chaithanya-Harsha duo takes the immoral route of kidnapping a rich person and demanding a ransom. Meanwhile, film producer Shetty (Sreekanth Iyyengar) is drawn into the mess when Seenu, too, joins the abduction game.
Post-Mortem:
This is a crime comedy populated by otherwise innocent persons. None of them wants to commit crimes but they are forced by circumstances. This is where the core problem lies. The film fails to convince the audience that the abductions they pull off are inevitable. Since their actions don't seem inevitable, everything that follows becomes irrelevant. We fail to connect with the travails of the two friends. We fail to empathize with Seenu and his distressed mistress either for more or less similar reasons.
Seenu, who becomes a gangster by chance, could have come with any other past. It wouldn't have changed the direction of the story or the artificial drama a wee bit. He is shown to be an aspiring actor with a penchant for speaking softly in the initial portions. This segment doesn't play on the minds of the audience once he metamorphoses into a clownish don.
As for Chaithanya and Harsha, it is their story only up to a point. Later on, Chaithanya fails to occupy the mind space of the audience. The second half doesn't have a single touching scene involving him and his girlfriend (played by Malvika Satheeshan). He and Harsha screw themselves up by goofing up their mission big-time. They cease to look like real persons. They start looking like characters from other boring movies.
Crime comedies have long ceased to be original in Telugu cinema. The characters are hackneyed and predictably dumb. Just because they are nitwits, we are supposed to assume that they wouldn't be able to think of the consequences of their offences. They don't bother to reflect upon the choices they make. If Chaithanya and Harsha are that senseless, do they even deserve to become filmmakers in the first place?
The performances are ordinary when they are not downright irksome. Sreekanth Iyyengar is becoming excruciatingly routine and loud these days. He behaves as though he is on steroids in movies. Shraddha Das appears in the role of Seenu's girlfriend whose personality metamorphosis is not a bit convincing.
Sunil and Harsha Chemudu could have been way better had their characters not been superficial. One can't hope much from Chaithanya Rao, the Achyuth of contemporary cinema.
Closing Remarks:
'Paarijatha Parvam' is lame and unoriginal. The humour is strictly avoidable.
