Cast: Akash Puri, Ulka Gupta
Direction: Raj Madiraju
Music: Dr Josyabhatla
Genre: Romance
Plot: Parents put their teen kids in place while they go astray
Bottomline:Time Pass should have been dubbed
Time Pass, the small-budget Marathi teen story that gave the Marathi film industry last year a huge monetary boost has been remade into Telugu as Andhra Pori. The run time of the stories in both the languages have been kept short and the lead pair in Telugu are teen stars Akash Puri who had done Lotus Pond as a child and Ulka Gupta a television and film artiste. Those who have seen the Marathi film and expect the Telugu version to be a ditto will be hugely disappointed. Andhra Pori has been superficially dealt with, a little more effort in dialogue writing would have been an interesting watch.
Ravi Jadhav’s story had Vaibhav Mangle playing the girl’s father, here it is Srikant Iyengar. The latter had the potential to meet the expectations but sadly the writing did him in. What drives the story mainly is Srikant’s role, his aversion towards people who speak non-fluent Telugu and his short temper. Here, his anger has been toned down to a large extent and has been confined to a few crucial scenes alone. The filmmakers could have hired someone more proficient that would have brought out the hilarity in the situations involving Srikant and Akash or Srikant and his family members.
The story is about a school-going girl Prashanti (Ulka Gupta) and a tenth failed Telangana newspaper boy Narsingh (Akash) and the infatuation that creates tension and uncertainty. In fact there is no story at all, it is a wafer thin line about the kids falling for each other but the parents objecting. The last scene has Akash telling Ulka’s brother that their love can’t succeed because of class divide but in the brother’s case it is a matter of cowardice that is keeping the lovers apart.
Songs are good but they are too many filling the space. Akash as a child artiste was cute, here he is at an awkward stage. He too needs to work on his expressions. This film comes too early for him to play the lead role. On the other hand Ulka has the screen presence. Arvind Krishna and Sree Mukhi provide the much needed glamour quotient albeit for a little while. Kotthagudem is an ideal location for the story setting and the background looks authentic. The film drags and that tests ones patience. If the script was tighter, screenplay racier, so many songs wouldn’t have found place.
Even Poornima disappoints, why take popular faces who have forgotten acting? Uttej shines in his brief role and coastal accent. Eshwari Rao could have been more spirited. All in all, Andhra Pori doesn’t satisfy anyone, the treatment is average and superficial. Surprising that Raj Madiraju who dealt with a far more complicated script like Rushi loses out while striking a balance between high emotion and romance.
