Adapted and Directed by: Jandhyala
Starring: Rajendra Prasad, Rajani, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Brahmanandam's debut role.
This is a super fun film, and I think this film has the structure which Srinu Vaitla has loosely adapted throughout his films - in the first half, the hero meets the girl and in the second half, he goes to a completely different world and plays a con man to convince the girl's family to get them married. Usually the first half and the second half are set in completely different worlds in this genre, including Baadshah, Ready, etc - I think part of this comes from the filmmakers wanting to show the same star actor in different settings.
This kind of storytelling is close to our Indian epics - where there are a lot of subplots which don't directly add to the core plot, and the story keeps moving from one point to another - and the whole universe is thematically connected. The risk of doing these kinds of stories is that, the thematic connection can get lost and the film might end up like a compilation of random subplots and jokes.
This film doesn't end up like that, Satyanarayana - the father wants his son to get married into a traditional family, with values and they show us the reason for this as well, him and his wife suffering when they were young and his promise to his wife. Hence, Lakshmipathy comes into play. There's no other choice here, they've to get along with him and in that process Krishnamurthy plays a con man. The subplot of Sita and Lakshmipathy's son is used to explore Lakshmipathy's character arc - after this is when everyone start rebelling against him, including the servant Govindu. The climax is like the cherry on the cake, where all grooms come together to marry Padma - that's when he realises his mistake.
Govindu aka Aragundu's track is hilarious - I think the scenes of his inner voice is the origin for the art form of memes, with the freeze frame and us reading the lines in their voice. Lakshmipathy fantasizing chicken by looking at a dead chicken hung - I thought this was a famous proverb, for the kind of a cultural phenomenon it is, this being written by a screenwriter is just mind blowing! I absolutely enjoyed this film, and the complexity of the screenplay never comes in the way of the comedy - it actually adds to it.
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