Geetha Govindam

Vijay Govind is a college lecturer. He is polite, close to his family and wants to marry. He sees Geetha on a bus and, trying to approach her, wrecks everything; she takes him for a molester and slaps him. They part before he can put it right. Then it turns out Geetha is the sister of his own sister's brother in law; the two families will meet at the same wedding. For a week Vijay tries to explain himself to Geetha, with his sister's marriage at stake. Parasuram Petla wrote and directed. Vijay Deverakonda, Rashmika Mandanna, Vennela Kishore, Subbaraju and Rahul Ramakrishna are in the cast. It is an Indian production in Telugu. The film opened in 2018 and became one of the highest earning Telugu films of the year. The narrative is built on a misunderstanding and the comedy works by prolonging it. The film opened an argument about consent because of the main character's behaviour on the bus, and that criticism became the most discussed thing about it. The narrative treats Geetha's anger as justified, but as it goes on it uses her as an obstacle to be talked round. Deverakonda and Mandanna acted together for the first time here and their pairing carried much of the film's success. The music and the songs carried its popularity. The narrative makes comic material out of family pressure and wedding preparation. The ending keeps the romantic comedy bargain. Its limit is point of view; the narrative gives events almost entirely from the man's side. Who it is for: viewers who like Telugu romantic comedy and easy watching. Who it is not for: the setup is contested, the film long, and the ending what you expect.