Padi Padi Leche Manasu

Surya and Vaishali meet and a relationship begins. The start is good; each wants the other and everything looks easy. Then the separation comes, and its cause is not one large event but small things accumulating. Surya does not accept it and goes after her. The narrative moves between the present and the past: how the relationship was built and how it fell apart are shown side by side, and two different rememberings of the same moments emerge. Hanu Raghavapudi directs. Sharwanand plays Surya and Sai Pallavi plays Vaishali. It comes from Telugu cinema and part of the film takes place in Kolkata; that choice of location sets its visual register. Sai Pallavi was a name coming forward through consecutive roles at the time, and her performance here was singled out in the reviews. The matter the narrative builds is remembering; the two describe the same relationship differently and the film does not say which is right. The visual work is above the average of the genre; the use of colour and light follows the director's known preference. The problem with the structure is length; as the shifts in time grow more frequent the narrative scatters and the middle turns heavy. It did not draw the interest expected at the Telugu box office. Who it is for: viewers who like Telugu romantic drama and Sai Pallavi. Who it is not for: the structure is loose, the pace slow, and the narrative repeats the same feeling.