Kumari 21F Review

This film has that adult comedy style title that it is not surprising that this Sukumar-written film has garnered so much of craze.  Having been written by Sukumar, the youth were expected to brace it up.  'Kumari 21F' is a stretch of a single line, but the climax throws up a surprise (or shock, if you would have it) that is more difficult to understand than to accept.  As with Jagadam, the sub-plot is either unsettling or ennui-inducing at best.

The film begins with Siddhu (Raj Tarun) being taken to custody by an angry cop.  Despite being beaten to the pulp, he won't tell the truth about his friends' whereabouts.  He begins narrating his story, set in a low-end colony, much as in Jagadam.  (There are many places where it is clear that the idea took birth in the late 1990s or early 2000s).  Siddhu is the son of a separated mother, doesn't like his father, who has ditched them for another woman, and he finds escapism in his three friends, played by Noel Sean, Naveen Neni, and Sudarshan.

Kumari (Heebah Patel) has this puzzling behaviour, she is an extension of the 'Jagadam' girl, in fact a better version of her.  There is even a song where the hero is seen wondering if the girl has loose morals, much as in 'Jagadam'.  New to the city, Kumari lives with her semi-paralysed grandfather who can't talk properly.  Siddhu's tryst with Kumari is narrated in installments and when all the installments are over, we come to know that Kumari fell in love with him at first sight.  Siddhu has been a puzzled one, but he is too preoccupied with his personal life to care much about Kumari, for whom he is having feelings, slowly but surely.

Siddhu's three friends form the film's major sub-plot.  This sub-plot keeps us guessing as to what its relevance is, almost till the climax, and even beyond that if one doesn't get the purpose the way it is intended to be.  Noel, Naveen Neni and Sudarshan are there to be a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in his life.

Narration-wise, the film is found wanting.  Making-wise, it is far from satisfactory.

For the entire first half, it is only the heroine who is the bright spot, entertaining the audience with her naughtiness.  The situations are ordinary, but her characterization (if not the actress herself) adds pep to otherwise lame proceedings.  The locations look rather stale; the setting looks rural but the characters enjoy an anonimity that is the stuff of metros - the three friends managing to have a secret place as an adda even as everyone in the street can tell their rogue stories.  It is all convenient and not consistent.

The dynamic relationship between the lead pair on the one hand, and Siddhu and the three friends on the other other, could have been portrayed without testing the audience's patience.  There are a few mutes which are thankless.

You keep expecting a coming-of-age rom-com, but all that you get is more of the same.  The second half has Siddhu paying the girl in same coin, but the screenplay and dialogue do not seem updated.  You are made to expect something of a blast from Kumari's past, but all that you taste is more of the same.

The film has two messages - one is intended, the other is unintended.  That one has to love that special one as he/she is the intended one.  What you sow, so shall you reap is the unintended one.  Siddhu has always been a best buddy of three unscrupulous beasts and he pays the price for it, ultimately.  Need one say it is all 'Jagadam', again?

The sub-plot of Siddhu's parents is a good point.  But what is inconceivable is how the director chose Hema for the role of the mother.  She simply has no seriousness on her face to pull of such roles.  Full stop.

Raj Tarun has started looking jaded, of late.  He simply has no maturity to pull of this role, which demands some knack for understated acting.  His character doesn't do naughty or mischievous as Telugu heroes are wont to.  Heebah Patel makes a mark after a while; she looks tender as well as naughty.  She is surely an asset, what with others remaining sketchy in their impact.

Devi Sri Prasad's music is less boisterous compared with other albums.  He gives a very good BGM, though.  Rathnavelu's cinematography is just about OK.

Verdict: One expects much from Sukumar's writing, but it is in the end, a Jagadam with Kumari.  The climax has something special in store, but it doesn't enrich the narration.  Some lines pass muster.

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