Story

Sekhar (Tarun) is a successful business manager in Hyderabad who is an alumnus of IIM. He meets Amar Varma (Siva Balaji) at a party. Amar Varma is an NRI from Germany who owns Varma industries out there. While driving back to his home, Sekhar accidentally speeds his vehicle into pedestrian Amar Varma. Amar Varma dies in the accident.

Sekhar's friend Sunil (Sunil) manages everything and makes sure that the police could not trace Sekhar and Sunil. It's 6 months since the accident happened and Sekhar could not come out of the guilty feeling. He joins Sunil and visits Germany.

He gets in touch with the family of Amar Varma. He realizes that the entire family of Amar depended on him for survival. And Varma Industries is bankrupt. Priya (Shriya), love and fiancée of Amar Varma, takes over the company and tries her hard to salvage, but in vain. Sekhar decides that he should give back all the comforts and love to the family, which he has taken away from them by killing Amar Varma.

The rest of the film is all about how Sekhar solves all the problems of Amar's family and eventually wins over the heart of Amar's lover Priya as well.

Artists Performance

Tarun: Tarun did extremely well in the character of Sekhar who repents and amends for the mistake he has done unknowingly. His performance when he cries at the corpse of Amar in the beginning of the film is the best histrionic he has done so far. Tarun played the role of playful naughty guy in his films so far. But he looks very matured in 'Ela Cheppanu'.

Shriya: This film would remain as a feature in the performance cap of Shriya. She is beautiful even when she weeps. And most of the times she end up in weeping. Most of the girls find so much of pleasure in weeping and the heroine character in this film is no exception.

Others: Siva Balaji is perfect in the role of tender hearted Amar Varma who sounds too good to believe. Abhiram did not suit the role. Sunil is extremely hilarious in his comedy character. Best of the comedy dialogues in this film are reserved for him. Brahmanandam seems to getting better roles when he visits abroad (Bavagaru Bagunnara, Vamsi, Manmadhudu etc). Kovai Sarala did another typical role. However, she had some serious dialogues to utter when movie approaches the climax. Child Artist Zeeba is good. Vijaya Chandar, Tanikella Bharani and Showkar Janaki are apt.

Technical Departments:

Story: The story of the film is inspired by Hindi flick 'Tum Bin'. The basic storyline is about how a guy - who accidentally kills another guy - tries to amend his fault by becoming a member of the deceased guy's family and serve them. A few films in Telugu have come in the past with similar point (like Samarasimha Reddy and Bhalevadivi Basu where Bala Krishna try to serve the family of the man who was either directly/indirectly killed because of him). In this story, heroine gets close to three guys at three points of time shows the frivolous attitude and feeling of insecurity that is faced by most of the working women.

Screenplay - direction: Ramana - who directed films like peruleni cinema and Subhavela - is an underrated director. With this film he comes out of the shadows to prove himself as an able director. His screenplay is good. He should be getting good offers after this film.

Music: Music of the film is very good. All the songs are melodious and soothing. A couple of songs serve as lifeline to this film. One song is 'ee kshanam oke oka korika' that used as the love line between Shirya and Siva Balaji. 'manchu taakina ee vanam' comes repeated in this film whenever Shriya is seen suffering. However, most of the songs have typical Bollywood style of tunes and instrumentation attached to it. The rerecording of the film is also impressive. Koti has done excellent job. The credit of audio success should go to Sirivennela for giving soulful lyrics.

Dialogues: Varma - who worked for Ram Gopal Varma's Premakatha in the past - has done pretty good job as dialogue writer. There is a good amount of comedy in the dialogues. There are sensible dialogues that gel well with the mood of the film. There a bit of Trivikram style in the dialogues.

Cinematography: Photography by Hari Anumolu is cool. He showcased the beauties of germany and Austria very well.

Production: Sravanthi Ravi Kishore should be commended for his guts in taking up this subject. He did not go after combinations with hottest heroes and in-the-form directors. He believed in his script. Heroine falling in love with the guy who killed her boyfriend/fiancée is an anti-sentiment. But he took up that point and made a very neat film without bowing to the commercial considerations.

Analysis: First half of the film is good. Second half is little slow. The climax of the film is dragged by three hops, because all the characters need to be given a logical finishing. Strengths of the film are comedy, dialogues, music and photography. Weakness in the film is basic setup chosen (foreign backdrop and corporate ambiance), excess of sentiment (you can see Shriya weeping and Tarun's repentance most of the time) and lack of mass elements for the B and C center audiences. This is a movie meant for family crowds and ladies would enjoy the film thoroughly. You can watch this movie at your leisure.

Tail piece: After you watched the film, if somebody happens to ask you the feedback, you always have a witty answer in store. All you have to reply back is 'Ela Cheppanu?'

Other Links
Showcase
Photo Gallery
Wall Papers
Audio function