Harish Kalyan, Priya Bhavanishankar lead a faithful remake-Entertainment News , Firstpost

There’s at all times an ethical dilemma on the subject of writing about remakes. Will we evaluate them to the unique? Or can we see them as stand-alone movies? Some individuals may desire to observe a remake with contemporary eyes. However I at all times watch the unique earlier than seeing a special model, simply to establish if there’s a shift in storytelling. It pursuits me to know if the filmmaker has picked a brand new vantage level to the identical story. Karthikk Sundar’s Oh Manapenney, a remake of the Telugu movie Pelli Choopulu, stays largely trustworthy to the unique. The very profitable 2016 Telugu movie had launched director Tharun Bhascker and Vijay Deverakonda as names to look out for. Oh Manapenney retains each Pelli Choopulu’s power and some of its weaknesses.

Karthik (Harish Kalyan) is a happy-go-lucky engineering graduate who likes cooking. However, his strict father coerces him to satisfy potential brides and get married. He meets Shruthi (Priya Bhavani Shankar), a gold-medallist enterprise graduate who aspires to develop into a businesswoman. As they change tales, they see a risk for collaboration. They revive Shruthi’s meals truck enterprise. However they’re like chalk and cheese. Are they capable of set variations aside and make it work?

Oh Manapenney will get its casting proper. Harish Kalyan and Priya Bhavani Shankar simply slip into their roles to recreate the chemistry that anchors the movie.

The remainder of the movie can be effectively forged — essentially the most noteworthy of them being Venu Aravind, who may be very convincing because the overbearing, conservative father. It additionally successfully retains a few of Pelli Choopulu’s most essential themes. Take the dialog Karthik has with Shruthi’s father. The latter had wished a son and was upset that he ended up with a daughter. Karthik speaks from a spot of true emotion when he says: “Had you gotten a ineffective son like me, then you definitely would know the way wonderful your daughter is”.

Among the writing can be altered to swimsuit its actors higher. Whereas Pelli Choopulu had a Mouna Raagam-like flashback between Chitra and her ex-boyfriend, Oh Manapenney opts for a plot that feels nearer to Varanam Aayiram. And since Harish Kalyan performs the lead, references to Dharala Prabhu and Ispade Raja are made. Even Venu Aravind will get a Selvi reference. The situational humour comes throughout as effectively, although among the hilarious gestures from Karthik’s grandmother get pushed to the background.

However Oh Manapenney additionally inherits a few of Pelli Choopulu’s emotional inconsistencies. We do not really perceive Karthik’s emotional arc. What really prompts Karthik to provide a monologue at Shruthi’s home? How did he miraculously start to simply accept duty after being so laid again? It additionally skates by the enterprise elements. How do they get prospects to return and check out their meals at new places? How do they create a model or retain buyer worth once they preserve shifting? It might have been nice to see the movie sketch out a few of these issues in larger element.

Vishal Chandrasekhar’s music proves to be an excellent power to the movie. I particularly cherished ‘The Lazy Music’ which superbly fuses the previous with the brand new. (A freshTamilian tackle Bruno Mars’ idea.) The album and rating are vibrant, including extra zest to the colorful visible aesthetics.

To sum up, Oh Manapenney is a lightweight, breezy movie about love and aspirations. It’d work higher if watched as a stand-alone movie, with out the lingering presence of Pelli Choopulu looming forward of it.

Oh Manapenney is at the moment streaming on Disney+Hotstar Multiplex.

Ashameera Aiyappan is a movie journalist who writes about Indian cinema with a concentrate on South Indian movies

Watch Oh Manapenney trailer right here