Gopi Gopika Godavari

"Nuvvakkadunte nenikkadunte praanam vila vila.. Nuvvekkadunte nenakkadunte mounam gala gala.." This is the song that has been playing on my car stereo for a long time. It was only for this music that i went to watch the movie in spite of the reviews thrashing it.Gopi(Venu) is a singer heading an orchestra in Hyd and Gopika(Kamalini) runs a mobile hospital that serves to the villagers on the banks of Godavari river. When Gopi finds a cell phone that is misplaced by Gopika's friend, their acquaintance beings as Gopi picks up Gopika's call. Gopika asks Gopi to return the cellphone to her friend but he finds her dead (no.. that's not the movie about). Anyway, they get to know each other over their conversations and when they were to meet each other, he is hit by a group of thugs and he loses his memory. All the while, Gopika's mother wants Gopika to marry a fellow doctor. The rest of the story is about how they unite.

I entered the theater expecting a nice comedy and a good romantic story with Godavari background. Well, that's the movie about except that none of it worked. Establishing romance between the lead pair over the death of a friend is little weird and even shot in an unconvincing way. The new actors chosen for comedians are pathetic and so is the script. It left me wondering if am watching a stale stage drama that tries to entertain with all the comic forwards that we see everyday in our mail boxes. Adding to that the camera work is hard to digest at places. Too close shots or the shots from the taken from the top doesn't work well.

It does not bring in the expected reactions. The comedy scenes with weird mannerisms don't evoke any kind of laughter while i see the people laughing out to the tragic scenes in the end. More than the actors, the movie seem to have failed because of the director whose ways does not seem to fit well for the movie. Unlike Sekhar Kammula's Godavari movie, this doesn't even capture the beauty of the river.

As the story moves on a dull note, even the songs fail to enthrall. The background music is appealing at places.

My Rating - 5/10