Garam Review, What’s Behind: Young hero Aadi’s continuous encounters with Box Office in search of a commercial breakthrough is coming yet again with ‘Garam’ from director Madan. The film produced by Sai Kumar has released today in theaters. Let’s get into actual review portion.
Garam Story: Varala Babu (Aadi) and Ravi (Chaitanya Krishna) living as neighbors have rivalry from childhood. While Varalu is insincere towards studies and is a burden on father (Tanikella), on the other side Ravi is college topper and is a matter of pride for father (Naresh). One fine day, Varalu lands in Hyderabad to find a job and falls in love with Sahasra (Adah Sharma), who roams around as Sameera, a girl with Muslim identity. As Varalu tries to woo her in different ways, he comes across a big shock related to Ravi. What is it? How is Sahasra linked to a message driven flashback? How Varalu clears the whole adversity in plot is rest.
Garam Artists and Technicians: Analyzing from story perspective, ‘Garam’ had a good thread linked to increasing literacy rate in India but not in increasing living standards. This line from Srinivas Gavireddy fell short in screenplay and direction with immense dilution. Director Madan could not keep up the pace of film as he is completely drifted from core point concentrating on hard, uninteresting commercial elements written on hero-heroine romantic thread. Towards the end, he tried to sum up all the key aspects but it went exhaustive and bored. Writing too wasn’t brilliant. Vijay Chakravarthy’s camera work was so dull and faint looking. Visuals weren’t really enchanting. Madhu’s editing lacked in sharpness. Many episodes were observed blunt and unappealing. Music by Agasthya is a weakest link both in songs and BGM. Production values of Surekha and Vasantha Srinivas are just fine.
About performances, Aadi is definitely a promising artist and strives to deliver the best possible from his side. He tried to remain rugged throughout and at times when dealing the emotional sentiment episodes, he stole the show. On to fights and dances, Aadi was confidently fluent. Adah Sharma hasn’t got a character of her caliber. She had very few dialogues and skimpy costumes have fit well in songs. Chaitanya Krishna does complete justice in a sincere character. Kabeer Duhan Singh did the rituals of main villain. Shakalaka Shankar’s comedy worked in bits and pieces. Naazar’s cameo gave the real twist in a long hidden flashback. Naresh was so authentic and so were Tanikella, Rajya Lakshmi. Then, Brahmanandam and Posani playing with PK spoof is also silly. Rest including Jaya Prakash Reddy, Sathya Prakash and others were just fine.
Garam Rating Analysis: Garam stands on a promising story premise. Driven straight into the main story; starting titles roll on creating an interest with childhood episodes. Then, a grown up Aadi’s tapori acts in native place forcing him to take the bus to Hyderabad are well handled. Into the city, romantic episodes on Aadi and Adah are poorly written and pathetically executed. These portions get long extension till interval when Krishna Chaitanya lying on hospital bed close first half on enthralling note. Into second half, first 30 minutes are purely of director Madan’s style. Senior Naresh just bleeds your heart with his performance bringing the exact point to fore. Later on, Madan going back to romance and wrongly placed songs really test the audience patience. Here on, bringing the core flashback and Aadi’s action part with villain cruise towards the end.
In totality, Aadi’s sincere approach towards the film alone isn’t enough to win the Box Office battle. Tasteless love track, lackluster screenplay, weak fun quotient, wrongly placed songs and Adah Sharma’s weak characterization left the film with much more demanding. All these drawbacks cumulatively make Garam to get up with 2.5 stars. Commercial verdict from audience has to be wait and seen.
Garam Cinejosh Verdict: Aadi Puts Up A Honest Show.
Garam Cinejosh Rating: 2.5/5.0
Reviewed by Srivaas