A girl meets a boy, is impressed with his people skills. She finds him interesting. Then, she meets another boy and finds him interesting as well. A little before she meets these boys, her grandmother chides her for putting up with pelli choopulu charades rather than finding her own man.
The girl in question, Bandhavi (Pooja Doshi), is a physiotherapist at Osmania General Hospital. So there are a number of scenes showing the exteriors and interiors of OGH. Unrelated to the film, one begins to wonder if the hospital ever looked so clean.
Bandhavi comes from a Tamil background, hence the Tamil-sounding title. A few Tamil lines figure during conversations. The Tamil-Telugu blend seems organic at places and forcible in others.
The story of a girl confused in love is punctuated with some lively music by Prasan Praveen Shyam. The picturisation is aesthetic (cinematography Shekar Joseph) and the characters are all easy on the eye. Yet, something feels amiss.
At a restaurant, we see Bandhavi teaching a lesson to a loud, annoying diner while Karthik (Harish Kalyan) waits for her with his bike revved up and the duo escape in the nick of time. There was scope to amp up this moment, resulting in good dose of humour. It works only to an extent because the scene appears somewhat staged.
Staged is the feeling we get in the initial portions. The not-so-subtle advertising of hotels, cafés and malls also hinders the flow of scenes.
At the heart of this love story are interesting characters. Karthik is a drifter. He has no steady job. He paints, works at a garage, teaches sailing at a yacht club and goes backpacking at whim. He’s an intriguing character and we wish there was more to him — a thread that tries to explore what made him the way he is, is cut short and never revisited. Harish Kalyan plays his part with maturity. This Tamil actor makes a promising entry into Telugu cinema. Sai Ronak and Pooja make an impression with good screen presence.
Bandhavi’s character remains the quintessential sweet, innocent girl who doesn’t realise that her confusion can wreck the two guys. She’s the bread winner of her family, which is in a financial mess. This, again, remains a surface detail. She shares a deep bond with her father, despite her mother holding him responsible for the financial mess. This family’s skirmishes and the situation they are in aren’t narrated in a manner that will make us empathise with them.
The rich guy prone to anger, Kranti (Sai Ronak), is a comparatively better-etched character since you see his quirks and outbursts.
The film livens up in portions involving Bandhavi’s friend and later during the face-off between the men.
A little more depth in characters would have helped this simple film from getting sluggish.
Kaadhali
Cast: Harish Kalyan, Pooja K Doshi and Sai Ronak
Direction: Pattabhi R Chilukuri
Storyline: A girl struggles to choose between two suitors