Story

Kumari (Hebah Patel) is a small-time model and also works for movies in insignificant roles. Siddhu (Raj Tharun) belongs to a lower middle class family is brought up by his single mother. Kumari falls in love with Siddhu. She keeps teasing him. Siddhu wants to fall in love, but is suspicious of her character. Kumari keeps loving Siddhu despite of his reservations. Rest of the story is all about what happens when Siddhu falls in love and still suspects that she has a dark past.

Artists Performance


Actors: Raj Tharun portray a character of different shades. As a confused and sublime lover to start with. Then as an enraged lover (dagaapadda premikudu). He has played the role to perfection. Hebah Patel has similar kind of characterization for most of the time. There are only a couple of scenes where she got a score for emoting. Otherwise, it’s a character of a carefree girl with I-love-you-no-matter-what kind of attitude. Noel Sean has a negative role. Sudarshan entertains with his quirky Nellore accented dialogues. Naveen Neni is good as friend. You will see Hema in a surprising role of a hardworking single mother.

Technical departments

Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the film is bold. The heroine characterization is something which you wouldn’t watch to watch in Telugu films. It borders between sensuousness and vulgarity. A woman of substance can sometimes be misinterpreted as a characterless woman. Love stories in real life are no so sweet and romantic as they portray in a typical Telugu romantic film. There are misinterpretations and insecurities which aren’t explored much in Telugu films. Sukumar uses Kumari 21F to show something which no other writer in Telugu has shown in the recent times. It’s a subject that’s identifiable to every person irrespective of gender and age. But, Sukumar takes the liberty to show both hero and heroine in grey shades. No proper girl would behave the way heroine behaves in the film. No proper guy with humble background befriends robbers and make a living out of it. He has a righteous upbringing and career objective (to be a chef in star cruiseliner of Singapore). The revelation of how it happened for father character towards climax is flimsy. Heroine talks about lack of maturity for hero in pre-interval episode, but she could have plainly told him about her past to clear it off in the beginning itself. Screenplay is nice and interesting in the first half. But the episodes of hero trying to make heroine feel jealous by pairing with another girl looks cliched and it didn’t work. The climax of the film is emotional thought it’s highly unconventional. I loved the iPhone concept used for title cards of the movie.

Other departments: Music by Devi Sri Prasad is trendy. Background music is seamless. Lyrics deserve a special mention (Love Cheyala Vadda, especially). Love Cheyala vadda sums up the confusion of guys regarding how girls behave. Bang Bang Bangkok lyrics and singing are authentic (not pretentious). Cinematography by Rathnavelu is top notch. He has brought mood to the film with lighting. Dialogues are well written. Art direction is good. Editing is smooth. Producers Thomas Reddy Aduri and Vijay Prasad Bandireddi should be commended for sticking to the subject and for providing the best of production values.

Analysis: There is a song in the film titled ‘love cheyala vadda’ in which boy describes a good thing about girl and then narrates the consequence. Thereby questioning the character of the girl. Audiences like me end up having the question - ‘like cheyala vadda?’ after watching the movie. Thereby questioning the essence of the movie. There are brilliant scenes followed by some bold/unconvincing scenes. You love it and you hate it. Then you come out of theater with mixed feelings. Kumari 21F is a unique film which has it’s own shortcomings. It’s not a film for everybody and has got bold content. Watch it for different content and there is a benefit/risk of loving/hating it!