Gopala Gopala

This 2015 Telugu film follows Gopala Rao, an atheist who sells statues of gods. His shop is destroyed in an earthquake; when the insurer refuses to pay by treating a natural disaster as an act of god, Rao takes god to court. The axis is the courtroom. Rao's failure to find a lawyer, the involvement of religious figures in the case and the public reaction sit at the centre; commercial piety is criticised inside the comic form. Venkatesh plays Rao and Pawan Kalyan the mysterious man who helps him. The film is a remake of a production made earlier in another language. The tone is light and the narrative takes aim not at belief itself but at its institutional form. Who it's for: those who like commercial Telugu comedy and courtroom narratives. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a sharp critique of religion; the film returns to a conciliatory place at the end.