The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : A long saga of unrequited love

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Tuesday, Apr 08, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

A long saga of unrequited love

Film: Nestama

Cast: Akash, Biyanka

Direction: Ravindra Reddy

A story of friendship, love and conflicting emotions, Nestama has three characters, Ravi (Akash), Sandya (Biyanka) and Poonam (Poonam Singar), childhood friends who meet after a long time and struggle to express their emotions. While Ravi and Sandya share a platonic relationship, Poonam loses her heart to Ravi. Ahuti Prasad, who is Ravi’s father, helps the story move forward by his over-imaginative thinking.

He is under the impression that the duo is in love and when Sandya is hurt in an accident and is in dire need of money, he takes a word from his son that he’d help her only if they don’t get involved with each other. Then on the film narrates the quirky ways of the heart.

While on one hand Poonam suffers from unrequited love but understands her friends perfectly, there is a doting son who doesn’t want to go against his father’s wishes when he realises he has actually fallen in love with Sandya. Do the couple profess love for each other? Will he break the promise for his lady love? What is Poonam’s role here? If you have the patience to go through soft, wistful and pointless love stories, then this is a film to watch.

Nestama is old-fashioned, the narrative is very slow and dialogues out-dated. Raconteur Ravindra Reddy could have added more life to the story and made it crisp, but he keeps the film free of loud verbal onslaught.

The script doesn’t support the good performances by the cast. For once Akash is way better than his previous films, Biyanka is refreshing, beautiful and shows promise. A bland screenplay, recycled humour, good photography and okay music complete the picture.

A definite ‘no’ for the intellectually equipped, ‘Nestama’ might venture into the heart but might not stay on for a long time.

Y. SUNITA CHOWDHARY

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