Story

Karthik (Aadi) is married to Swathi (Erica J Fernandes) and both of them are unhappy. Karthik has a lover (Kristina Akheeva) before marriage with whom he has differences which results in him marrying Swathi. Swathi doesn’t believe in marriage, hence she rejects a guy (Rahul Ravindran) before marriage. Karthik and Swathi make a decision to part their ways amicably as the official divorce might take an year. The rest of the story is all about whether they follow their heart or continue their marriage of convenience.

Artists Performance

Actors: Aadi comes up with a natural work and his performance in climax is very mature. His dialogue delivery is getting better, but should concentrate on telling casual dialogues without any trace of any dramatization. Erica Fernandes has played a mature role and does well. Kristina Akheeva suited the role. Rahul Ravindran is fine. Gayatri Bhargavi has played the role of an understanding housewife and she is excellent in a scene where she tells the greatness of wife. Bharath Reddy has a lengthy role and does justice. Vennela Rama Rao plays an interesting role. The scenes involving Saptagiri should have been worked well.

Technical departments

Story - screenplay - direction: Story provided by Sampath Nandi is novel and bold. Most of the backstories of main characters in the film are interlinked, hence the complicated story works. The writer/director have made a choice to put in fun in the first half and emotion in the second half. Hence you see a sudden change in orientation in the second half and it goes into preachy mode about love/relationships as the climax approaches. First time director Naveen Gandhi makes a decent impression with his work. However, a couple of scenes (gigolo stuff and grannies having alcohol) are embarrassing. The screenplay of the film is interesting, however the post-break-up scenes among the 4 main characters should have been written in a way to create more closeness between new couples. The writer has taken a conscious choice to get the family obligations play the vital role in post-break-up story. Despite of a few shortcomings in second half, it is a good attempt by the writer and director.

Other departments: Dialogues written by Sampath Nandi are excellent. Most of them are bold and unflinching. Songs scored by Bheems are good. The song rendered by Kailash Kher towards climax is pretty good. Background music is also nice. Cinematography by K Bujji is fine. The makers have selected new skyscrapers of Hyderabad as backdrop for many scenes in the movie and it brought nice look to the scenes. Editing is okay. Producers Sampanth Nandi, Kiran and Vijay should be applauded for coming up with a brave concept. Production values are decent.

Analysis: First half of the film is entertaining with a few masala scenes/dialogues. Second half concentrates on emotions and values in relationships. Plus points of the film are story, dialogues and music. The forced entertainment scenes (Saptagiri/Chandra comedy episodes) doesn't work in second half. The success of this film will depend on how the second half works for youth. On a whole, Gaalipatam is a bold film that is narrated in an interesting way (I still feel that second half should have been handled in a balanced way instead of going in completely emotional mode).