Thaindian News

By V.S. Rajapur
Film: “Preethi Hangama”; Cast: Vivek Raj, Shubha Poonja, Anant Nag, Avinash, Oorvashi, Padmaja Rao; Director: Vivek Raj; Producer: Pushpa Eknath and Rashmi Eknath; Music Composer: Raj Kiran; Camera: Chandrashekhar; Rating: *

Debutant Vivek Raj has taken too many responsibilities in his first venture - he scripted the movie, directed and even acted in “Preethi Hangama”. The youngster, who is said to be trained as an actor and director, has not been able to show even little promise with his multi-tasking.

The net result is that “Preethi Hangama” ends up as another half-baked romance that not only look ridiculous on screen but even drives you nuts.

The story is silly and unbelievable. Coming to the screenplay, it is obvious Vivek didn’t do his home work properly. He failed to get decent performance from many artists barring some veterans like Anant Nag, Avinash and others.

Both Vivek and his heroine Shubha Poonja are expressionless.

Raj Kiran’s music is another big let down - there is not even one song which is hummable.

Dialogues written by Veteran M.S. Ramesh hardly make an impact, but some semblance of strength is visible in the camera department.

The basic premise of the film is that two people take up a challenge for silly reasons.

Geetha, who works in a weekly, is asked to write an article that even a young girl can emotionally cheat a person and make him fall in love despite giving him a hard time. On the other hand, Raja’s boss challenges him to fall in love with a hot-headed girl like Geetha.

Both Raja and Geetha set out to achieve the target. Geetha humiliates Raja, but her misbehaviour doesn’t dissuade him from wooing her.

Geetha falls in love with Raja after meeting his family who ignore her bad behaviour and shower love and affection on her. She fails to write the article.

But she is heartbroken when she learns that Raja pretended to love her to get a contract for himself.

This insipid story could have been interesting if Vivek would have narrated it intelligently. But the film becomes intolerable mainly because it has listless performance from many artists and poor production values.

Even the comedy sequences don’t offer any respite from the continuous torture that you have to endure while watching the film.

Vivek has failed both as an actor and director. But his failing as an actor is more pronounced because he has not been able to emote in key sequences. Shubha, who won the best supporting actress award for “Moggina Manasu”, needs a competent director to make her act. She looks misguided throughout the film.

It is only veteran Anant Nag who sleep-walks through his role.

Give “Preethi Hangama” a miss.