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Story
Harsha Akhil Akkineni) is a successful NRI software engineer. He visits India for a short period with an objective of getting married after meeting a lineup of 20 prospective brides, after looking at the photographs, Harsha likes Vibha. And his parents reject the girl as the horoscopes did not match. Vibha (Pooja Hegde) is a stand up comedian. She thinks independently and has her life under control. Harsha is a man who puts all his resources into being successful, but has zero knowledge about other things in life. Harsha proposes to her and she rejects. Rest of the story is all about how Harsha matures himself and wins back Vibha.
Artists Performance
Akhil Akkineni who has done roles of heroism and domination in films like Akhil and Mr. Majnu played a pure-hearted, subservient and innocent youngster in this film. He is natural and believable. He had an unconventional hairstyle and beard in the second half. There are loads of dialogues for him and he delivered them well. Pooja Hegde is very glamorous and costumes are done in such a way to expose her long legs (capitalising on the Ala Vaikunthapuramulo legs craze) in most of the scenes. She has given a great performance as a girl who looks confident for half of the film and vulnerable for the remaining half. Easha Rebba and Faria Abdulla have done guest roles as prospective brides. Murali Sharma is fine as the heroine’s father who opposes advances of the hero. Pragathi has a different role as a mother. Posani Krishna Murali generates comedy in court scenes. The comedy generated by Jabardasth actors (Sudigaali Sudheer & Getup Seenu) is passable. Vennela Kishore has the ability of lighting up the scenes with his own improvisation. But his short character in this film is badly written and he looks pale. All other actors (Jayaprakash, Aamani, Amit Tiwari, Ajay, Shrikanth Iyyangar etc) have done well. Real couple Rahul Ravindran and Chinmayi made a special appearance.
Technical departments
Story - screenplay - direction: Basic story of the film explores love and stability of the marriage system. It’s a love story between two contrastingly different individuals. Vibha knows exactly what she wants in life going forward, She follows a set of rules and makes decisions according to those rules. Harsha is so much involved with his career that his worldly knowledge (and common sense) is almost nil. His character is so dumb that he takes her suggestions seriously without knowing that she is trolling him. She rejects him because he doesn’t fit in her scheme of things. Harsha grows wiser in 9 months and returns to India to try again to propose Vibha. However, the approach he takes for that looks very shabby (shadowing and stalking her). Vibha who looks so confident in the first half looks pretty vulnerable and lost in the second half. A guy like Harsha coaches her positivity and self confidence through phone calls and messages (and the funny part is that Vibha doesn’t even know that it's Harsha on the other side). The entire passive play in the second half fails to evoke emotions (especially love). The characters of fathers look very rigid by pulling the lives of their kids in the opposite direction. And the climax of the film is very preachy and it's being repeated innumerous times in Telugu cinema since Bommarillu (incidentally, it's the debut film of the director). Director Bommarillu Bhaskar has handled the first half well. However, the approach (shadow following and stalking) looks lame and unconvincing in the second half. There is no consistency in the characters of main leads (the attributes of hero and heroine get swapped in the second half). The director should have concentrated on a few characters to explore marital compatibility rather than using every character in the film to show that no marriage is perfect. The screenplay should have been better.
Other departments: Cinematography by Pradeesh Varma is decent. Songs scored by Gopi Sundar are good. Two melodies used in the first half (Leharayi & Guche Gulabi) are beautiful. However, they haven’t used the Manasa song which garnered 16 million views in youtube is not used in the film. Background music is alright. Dialogues are decent, though preachy at times. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh is fine. Production design by Avinash Kolla is good. Production values by the GA2 banner are decent.
Analysis: Most Eligible Bachelor explores the concept of love and marriage through two contrasting personalities. First half of the film is decent with a couple of melodies and entertaining narration. Second half lacks engagement mainly due to character reversal. It’s pretty hard to see Pooja Hegde (usually the boss girl) as the damsel in distress and it’s not nice to see Akhil character who believes in positivity and purity resorting to shadow games to get close to the heroine. The climax of the film is preachy with Bommarillu Bhaskar trying to recreate the climax from his classic Bommarillu. Most Eligible Bachelor is not a bad film and it's better than most of the recent releases. However, it falls short of being a good film. The packaging of the film, music and Dasara holidays will do good for the film.
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