Karam Dosa Review

'Karam Dosa' hits the screens today.  Here is our review:

Story:

Vemana (Shivakumar Ramachandravarapu), a jobless youth by choice, is a day-dreamer.  Abhorring 9-5 job, he has been wasting his time doing nothing, all the while thinking about hitting the jackpot.  Bali, his fellow jobless roommate and Ravi, his all-weather employed friend, are his companions.

Told in parallel is the story of the owner (played by the talented Vankayala Sathyanarayana) of Pichaiah Mess.  Clandestinely funding activities that modernize an adivasi community, he is that Gandhian who practices 'Simple living and high thinking'.

The crux lies in how the stories of these two characters are interlaced.

Analysis:

'Karam Dosa' may be best described as a light-veined film delivering a serious-minded theme, working at a certain level.  If you are someone who revels in imperfect yet lovable characters, situations that are not dramatic yet carry weight, a certain type of developed Telugu that is humorous/hard-hitting, then this is your-kind-of-film.

To quote a few of the witty lines from the movie: 'Inka melu, noru undi kada ani TV reporter avvu analedu', 'Didn't the Baba on You Tube say that you have to fake anger but shouldn't become angry?', 'If we don't find any job, we will settle down as lecturers at some engineering college', etc.

With adequate budget, debutante writer-director Trivikram Gajulappali might have pulled it off with panache.  The BGM and the cinematography are inferior, failing to elevate an otherwise decent script.

At times, the film also seems to suffer at the level of ideation itself.  You can't be doing an 'Amrutham'-meets-Chandamama magazine story for the big screen with a story that has at its centre unfashionable characters (read the mess owner) and a character who is much in the same mode for most of the film!  Generally speaking, when they are giving a message, our filmmakers tend to be complacent about the fact, throwing drama to the winds.

Certain elements like the Testing joke and matrimony track can't appeal to the front-benchers.  Too much of reliance of language also takes its toll.  The absence of a single female character in the entire first half is another drawback.

The second half surely throws up many bright moments. The story itself has a vast potential to be evolved into a crime thriller-drama.

All the actors do a good job, especially Shivakumar and Vankayala Sathyanarayana.

Verdict:

At one level, 'Karam Dosa' feels like watching a substantive yet extended short film.  Enjoy the dialogues.  Don't expect technical superiority.