K-Ramp, produced by Hasya Movies and Rudransh Celluloid, hits the cinemas today. In this section, we review the latest box office release:
Plot:
Kumar (Kiran Abbavaram) is a born-rich heavy drinker whose academic track record is good for nothing. His millionaire-father Krishna (Sai Kumar) buys a seat in a Kerala college so he could study Engineering there. Once in God's Own Country, the "devil-gifted" child doubles down on his drinking habits. The entry of a beautiful classmate named Mercy Joy (Yukti Thareja) comes as a whiff of fresh air (pun intended) in his life. But he is not prepared for the ultimate test of his life in the form of Mercy's mental condition.
Performances &Technical Departments:
K-Ramp's script plays to Kiran Abbavaram's core strengths, last seen in full display in SR Kalyanamandapam. He doesn't swim against the tide but he definitely rises above the obvious flaws. He loves exaggerated comedy style and those conventional slo-mo shots, something KA and other movies didn't offer him.
It's hard to point out who the next best performer in the movie is. Purely on the performance front, K-Ramp is a one-man show with no other redeeming act. Yukti Thareja is failed by a caricaturish characterization. VK Naresh, with his problematic behaviour with women, is good in just one scene (for which his character actually exists). Sai Kumar is forgettable in the role of Kumar's father. Vennela Kishore is good in a scene, while Ali and Srinivas Reddy are wasted. Muralidhar Goud, as Mercy's elder, looks dull.
Chaitan Bharadwaj's lively music hides the slop inherent in the script. The songs deserved to be imagined in a brighter fashion. The cinematography is functional, while the production design is generic.
Post-Mortem:
K-Ramp treats a disorder in such a silly manner that director Maruthi, who is often criticized for dumbing down disorders and milking them for low-brow comedy, will come across as the Rajamouli of Psychiatry if you watch this movie. While minor disappointments can trigger an intense emotional reaction in PTSD persons, it's ridiculous how the female lead doesn't exhibit any capability for thinking from the intermission point. Suddenly, when the film has to be wrapped up, her brain cells start functioning, though.
The whole manner in which the hero-heroine duo end up falling in love is outdated. A nocturnal meeting, followed by Kumar discovering that the angel who breathed life into his useless existence is a classmate! And just when Mercy asks him to bless her by not stalking her, she gets saved by Kumar from harassers.
The jokes are dated unless they are saved by Kiran's timing. Sample this: Daniel is mispronounced as 'dhaniyalu', prompting the guy to say that he is neither 'dhaniyalu' nor 'miriyalu'. During an exam, Kumar copies from Mercy (who appears for the final exams with a gaudy pink lipstick) to the T, striking off the lines she struck off.
The situations are shallow, adding little to nothing to the narrative after a point. After the interval, Mercy becomes a stagnant character. And it's not like K-Ramp works as a romantic story either. Kumar wants to run away from the situation, mislabelling his lover as a mad woman. When he is not boozing with his 'chillar' friends, Kumar claims to be going through immense suffering. VK Naresh's character is cheap to the point of disgust; his harassment of women is something Kumar doesn't mind.
Closing Remarks:
K-Ramp is a problematic romantic comedy entertainer. Kiran Abbavaram's performance and Chaitan's music are the film's only plus points. The climax is passable.