Samajavaragamana

Ram Abbaraju's 2023 Telugu film follows Balu, from a middle-class family. Meeting Sarayu revives an idea of romance he had long set aside, but his cousin's marriage stands directly in the way of his own plan. The humour comes from family calculations. Who marries first, who spends how much and what the relatives expect sit at the centre, and Balu tries increasingly absurd ways of upsetting that order. Sree Vishnu leads. The tone is light and the pace high; the narrative produces no serious conflict and the close goes where it is expected to. The film did well commercially in Telugu cinema. Who it's for: those who like Telugu family comedy. Who it's not for: viewers expecting an original plot; the film follows a familiar pattern.