‘The Great Pre-Wedding Show’ movie review: This Thiruveer-starrer is a a cheeky countryside tale bolstered by fine performances

Ramesh (Thiruveer) runs a small photo studio for a living, with the help of a young lad named Ram Charan (Rohan). He’s in love with Hema (Teena Sravya), a contract employee at a nearby government office. A soon-to-be-married couple, Anand and Soundarya, hire their services for their pre-wedding photoshoot, a grand affair which they manage to put together with great difficulty.

When the memory card with the pre-wedding photoshoot footage is lost, a desperate Ramesh unearths every trick in the book to bail himself out of trouble. While his aim is inadvertently fulfilled, a change of heart prompts him to undo his wrongs and clear the burden off his chest. It’s something Ramesh decides to do for himself more than external validation, though the resolution will not easily come his way.

Films like The Great Pre-Wedding Show matter because they undo the stereotyping of the region (Srikakulam in this case) inflicted by popular cinema for years. The film neither romanticises nor undermines life in the rural belt, brims with the voice of an insider, has music steeped in the region’s flavour, with little or no effort to sophisticate its texture and still tells a story that’s contemporary, bound by Telugu cinema’s age-old trusted link: marriage.

All the drama around the pre-wedding shoot in the film isn’t new, but the fun lies in the effort to infuse it with cinematic flavour. The bridegroom demands the best pre-wedding video ever in the village, money no bar. The girl, initially hesitant, gives her nod. From bike rides to race circuits to beaches and lavish sets, their quest for picture-perfect moments at various backdrops is a readymade recipe for humour.

The film has a racy first hour, coming alive with its slice-of-life treatment, but also unsettles the viewers. Ramesh is far from perfect, ready to go to any length to save himself from an embarrassing situation, using his girlfriend as a pawn in the process and lying like there’s no tomorrow; he also miserably fails at it.

The soul of the story falls in place only post intermission. For a change, it is interesting to see a role reversal; the elderly men in the households of the groom and the bride are the petty ones, while their wives are the wiser lot, putting their egos aside and doing what is necessary to keep their children happy.

It is also refreshing to see a protagonist admit to his follies and make amends. All the threads are tied together neatly in a tongue-in-cheek, witty climax that represents the tonality of the film. While building the finer details in the setting and in Ramesh’s journey, the filmmaker avoids heavy drama, despite every opportunity to do so.

The narrative is structured neatly into crisp, witty episodes, with intriguing twists at regular intervals that remind viewers why this isn’t an average rural fare. The sharp dialogues are in perfect sync with the performances. Thiruveer shoulders the film assuredly with a vulnerable, innocent portrayal of a protagonist with a solid character arc.

Good help comes from the ensemble cast. The spunky Teena Sravya is a delight to watch, and 90’s fame child actor Rohan is in infectious form (the ‘poop’ episodes are an instant hit). Another integral casting choice is Narendra Ravi (as Anand), who provides priceless authenticity to the setting with an effortless portrayal. Yamini Nageswar, his on-screen counterpart, is another good find.

Among other actors, both the on-screen mothers, Prabhavathi and Madhavi, display superb screen presence, with their joint sequence in a share auto taking the cake. The casting choices, even for the minor roles who need to lose themselves in a crowd, make an impression. A rare instance of insensitivity in the film is the sequence where a dialogue around an elderly man beating up his wife after getting drunk is passed off as a joke.

Apart from the foot-tapping ‘Vayyari Vayyari’, Suresh Bobbili’s choice to integrate a handful of folksy, native songs sung by local artistes into the film is a value addition. The cinematography, production design, and costumes too organically contribute to the playful vibe. Avoiding narrative excesses, the 116-minute runtime indicates a storyteller with clarity.

The Great Pre-Wedding Show is a warm throwback to the lighthearted films fronted by the likes of Chandra Mohan, Naresh and Rajendra Prasad in the 80s that were often helmed by directors such as Vamsy or Jandhyala; these films were rooted in native fervour, and their writing of comedy balanced both escapism and realism.