Purushaha releases in theatres on May 22. It appears to follow a tiring trend. The core marital conflict seems like a mere formality. Slapstick comedy takes over the main plot instead. The trailer heavily features Vennela Kishore, Saptagiri, and Kasireddy Rajkumar. VTV Ganesh and Pammi Sai also dominate the footage. Make no mistake. Each of these comedians hold promise in varying degrees. However, too much of everything is too bad.
The story focuses on debutant Pavan Kalyan Battula and his onscreen wife. However, their relationship issues quickly get overshadowed. Loud and physical humour hijack the narrative, at least in the trailer. Rajkumar Kasireddy and Saptagiri amplify the noise.
This template raises concerns. Recent disasters like Sathi Leelavathi suffered from a similar issue. That film also packed a host of comedians (including Saptagiri, VTV Ganesh, coincidentally) into the cast. The comedians corrupted the plot rather than saving it. Purushaha risks repeating that exact mistake. Loud gags might once again drown out genuine emotion.
While it is premature to judge a movie by its trailer, the track record of Telugu cinema in recent years does the talking. Our filmmakers are yet to learn the art of generating realistic humour from Insta reels.
