How far can you really twist a boy-meets-girl story? Add the passage of time, the ebb and flow of contemplation, some misunderstandings and some good ol’ regret to the mix, you might just have plenty. Prem Kumar, Santosh Shoban’s latest film in the theatres, is bookended by a wedding. Doffing a hat to how weddings have been the scene of choice for a climactic showdown in Telugu filmmakers across decades, with the equally stereotypical shubham appearing on the screen, the film dives straight into its titular protagonist and the key conflict that shapes the next two hours of the film. We learn details of his extraordinary bad luck through alliteration-friendly lines (ithanu shani ni sankalo pettukuni thiruguthunaadu) and internet culture humour (ee daridram ki manam iche value entha). Prem’s bad luck starts with him getting dumped at the altar once, only for the pattern of dumping to continue for years on end. Before you wonder why someone as good looking as Santosh Shoban is having trouble finding a wife (a doubt pretty sure many had when Venkatesh pulled a pelli kani prasadu in Malliswari), you get an astrologer spelling out his “case study” worthy jathakam.
At least money begins to come his way when he decides to utilise his lack of expertise in the getting-married department (which obviously means developing a parallel expertise in the women-are-full-of-BS department) and soon enough, Prem and his friend start an agency to help people break relationships. The glee and ease with which they help distressed men comes to a grinding halt when Prem confronts his past and the rest of the film rolls into a comedy of errors, think Ante Sundaraniki meets Chandamama.
Prem Kumar is filled, overflowing even with dialogues, dialogues and more dialogues that betray the norms of brevity and pace and leave you annoyed first, then numb. There is nothing inherently wrong with adopting a dialogic format, especially one that comes with good doses of heavy-fisted humour, but it is only ironic that the humour added in the film’s lines to make it more accessible renders the film inaccessible to the viewer. Santosh Shoban is quite good, in moments where he is required to be both vulnerable and funny, but he finds very little support in the film’s screenplay or his love interest Nethra (an unresponsive Rashi Singh), who he keeps pining for. Sure, this man who keeps saying “feeling aa? I have no feelings” had his heart melt, his hope rise a little at the sight of this woman, whom he met at an arranged marriage set-up, but wouldn’t his character arc be better off if he was established with a single “alter-leaving” moment, as opposed to say a montage full of ‘em?
But the screenplay at least throws an arc or two for Prem and Nethra. Angana and ‘Rising Star’ Roshan doesn’t even get that, hamming their way through some all-too-familiar rich bimbo/rich himbo stereotypes. Angana, played by a fairly confident Ruchitha Sadineni actually gets a decent introduction scene. You know she wants to be taken seriously but refuses servility when she shuts off people who call her ma’am. She goes on to ask a prospective wedding planner to quote a higher amount. But that is where anything noteworthy about Angana ends. The rest of the time you are left wondering if Angana is a real name or are we just looking at a certain Bollywood actor’s name with one letter off.
While people often like to look at massive budget star vehicles to understand how mainstream Telugu film works, one can equally gleam some inputs on what ‘mainstream’ is in the way some of the supposedly bankable, risk-free storytelling Tollywood-isms trickle down to its smaller films. While there is a good chance that bigger films can get away from things smaller films can never escape from…smaller films can definitely not get away from things even bigger films cannot get away from. After all, life may or may not offer a Shubham card. Cinema does.
Film: Prem Kumar
Cast: Santosh Shoban, Rashi Singh, Krishna Chaitanya, Ruchitha Sadineni, Sudarshan
Director: Abhishek Maharshi
Rating: 2/5
