The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : An insipid fare Film reviews

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Saturday, Nov 15, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

An insipid fare Film reviews

Film: Avakai Biryani

Cast: Kamal Kamaraju, Bindu Madhavi

Direction: Anish Kuruvilla

‘Avakai Biryani’ is a strange title, but it doesn’t take much time to realise why the filmmaker has given this name to the film. Lakshmi is a Brahmin girl selling mango pickle and Akbar is a Muslim youth who drives an auto to eke out a living.

It is also a tale of a village, its poverty, politics, good friends and romance.

Apart from dealing with the Hindu-Muslim love story, it shows the fighting spirit of two characters who are thrown in adverse circumstances, each trying to help the other.

A noble, line but the film suffers on more than one account.

The lead pair basically has a very urbane, metropolitan look and the story setting, all in a village atmosphere, doesn’t suit them.

Focus on poverty

There are gaps in conversation, the pace of the film drags, yet it has a compelling look at poverty.

The script doesn’t have much to look forward to; no tensions, no twists and the cast don’t quite manage to inject energy into the film. Kamal wears only two expressions throughout the film which has dull dialogues. It is only in the end that it finally hits a sweet note.

Bindu Madhavi is pretty but the lip-synching just doesn’t gel with the dubbing work.

She is capable of doing much better work. The film has lush colours, gorgeous visuals, nice hummable songs, but the narrative is unappealing.

At two hours and fifteen minutes ‘Avakai Biryani’ is not nearly as fulfilling as we have every right to expect it to be.

Y. SUNITA CHOWDHARY

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