Bommarillu - Love makes Life Beautiful

And so, we have another movie that takes a fairly confused guy, a fairly confused (and young) girl, exaggerates puppy love to the proportion of "I-know-she-is-the-one-for-eternity" love, sandwiches family, emotions, and another hapless "engaged" girl in the middle of the love story to dish out a rather clean, musical movie, that does manage to tickle your ribs once a while. But well, this movie is not just a love story. It starts out to deal with the issues of over-bearence, in the form of the protagonists' father and the concept of independence for the younger generation. We have all been through the stages where our clothes, our attires, our hairstyles, our groups in intermediate, our ambitions, our marriages and other innumerable intricacies have been designed by our fathers and mothers. Where would you draw the line and stamp your feet and say, "Its my life"!! Or should I ask, where should they draw the line and not cross it!
May be I'm not the right guy to be watching movies - these movies are not really made for me. I'm always looking out for flawed characters dish out perfect solutions to their moral and emotional dilemmas. I need to understand that we do not live in a perfect world. I love a world that is perfect, for I'm not. Kinda like Sidhu in the movie, who falls for a girl (at first sight) not for all that she is, but for all that he is not. Reminds me of a wonderful Zach Braff - Natalie Portman movie, the Garden State. In fact on some level, Bommarillu is an Indian Garden State. Sans the dysfunctional friends. But unlike Hindi movies of today that are direct shameless rip offs, I would like to beleive that Bommarillu was actually inspired by Garden State and Andhraised beautifully. Hell, I would even want to go so far as saying Bommarillu is a novel concept. That had great potential. Of becoming a wonderful telugu movie on the lines of Anukokunda Oka Roju. But somewhere, I have this sense that Bommarillu flatters to deceive, and falters to fall. And by the time the movie ends, the movie that could actually have been so relatable, and could have been so mature (atleast according to me), reduces itself to another albeit very well packaged, an almost-baked effort. But as I said, I am in love with the concept of a perfect world. And I am in illusion that movies are an abstraction of that perfect world.

So whats wrong with the movie??? A lotta my friends liked it, some didn't, and some people like me, hated it. The movie is a superhit, but my family didn't like it. But then, I didn't like the concept of Nuvve Kaavali (I haven't watched it!!!), Manasantha Nuvve (I watched it!!!), so you might find my taste in movies - distasteful at best. So if you like Bommarillu, you might just wanna read this to bash me up later. Or not wanna read it at all. You wanna quit, you are welcome. But if for any other reason, you wanna read this on - well , come along.

First of all, I am one of those guys who wants to beleive in Love... Everlasting Love... (Gosh, that does sound like Carrie in Sex and the City)... I want to beleive that I can fall in love with a person not by the way they look ( I never wanted to beleive in Love at First Sight, but it seems its true!!! and ... it exists:( ) I stare at beautiful strangers, I am smitten by the very pretty faces that life throws at you along the way, but they are not the ones I care about. And I wanted a movie that showed me what I wanted to beleive. Because thats how I beleive reality exists. And I want to beleive that only the mature guys (and gals) understand love. And that is where my problem is with the movie. I beleive the protaganists were totally immature. From the guy liking a girl (falling for her at the first sight), to loving her for all that she was and he was not, to lying to her father about her whereabouts, to abusing his and her father when drunk... all pretty immature stuff. The girl was childish, selfish, ignorant, didn't know what she wanted out of life, blah, blah, blah (you get the picture). But oh!! Wait a minute. Aren't we all so wretched, so flawed, so imperfect as these characters. May be, to varying extents. But raising those flaws to idealistic pinnacles is what angers my sense (aesthetic and common). How can a guy who couldn't respect his woman in his family treat her with respect throughout her life? How can a girl who could lie for a whim and a fantasy be expected to live a good life!! If anything was fools paradise then Bommarillu is. And I didn't get the message across that the movie intended. When should fathers leave themselves out of their children's lives? And to what extent should grown up kids let their parents lead their lives? Is it just a question of who you will marry? Or where you will be from 9-5 on weekdays? What are the limits on freedom and liberation?
I am pained because Bommarillu could have been great. Instead its just a very visually pleasing, run-of-the-mill story. Watch it if you beleive in love at first sight. Watch it if you like to get drunk and abuse your father. Watch it if you really like the idea of falling in love, getting married and... that love makes life beautiful.