Clean, whacky comedies are gold-dust these days. Movies where you can laugh wholeheartedly, without worrying about embarrassing scenes popping up suddenly are hard to come by.
Brochevarevarura proves that you do not need over-the-top plots, and high-flying budgets to pull off a whacky, crazy comedy that makes you laugh, and keeps you edge-of-the-seat interested right till the end.
That Vivek Athreya, the director, gets the cast, so perfectly, in itself is a win; he picks a bunch of 'the right people', who bring a casual effortless charm to the story. The movie features two parallel tales which intersect later. On one side is a wannabe writer (Satya Dev), narrating a story to an actor (Nivetha Pethuraj). On the other side, are three intermediate students (too grown-up for 12th standard but they keep getting zeroes in their exams) who call themselves R3 - Rahul, Rocky and Rambo (Sri Vishnu/Priaydarshi/Rahul Ramakrishna).
They become friends with Mithra (Nivetha Thomas), who wants to be a dancer but is forced to study by her autocratic dad she wants to escape from. Staging a kidnap for the money she needs to stay away from her dad, the four land in more trouble. Money becomes the driving factor soon, as the three friends try to rescue Mithra from an onerous situation, and the consequences of their actions spill into others' lives.
To start with, the cast deserves a full round of applause for pulling off such natural acting - whether it is the comedy, the roulette of emotions, the anxiety in the second half, or the bonhomie among each other. Nivetha Thomas, in particular, should be singled out for her extremely articulate acting almost overshadowing everyone else in every frame. She is turning out to be one of the finest women actors in recent times.
Even actors with minor roles look convincing in the movie, ensuring viewers are hooked up right from start to finish. The background score by Vivek Sagar is trendy and offbeat without being overtly experimental, and fits the mood shifts in the movie. The cuts between the two parallel stories were wonderfully done, almost making you wonder if the writer in one sub-plot is narrating the story unravelling in the other sub-plot.
The biggest applause should be reserved for the comic timing in the movie. The entire first movie leaves the audience in splits. It goes to show how a little creativity - and not obscenity or lewdness - is needed to conjure charming, witty comedy that can make people laugh without a hint of guilt. Even a mini side-plot in the second half involving a ragpicker will leave you in splits.
Brochevarevaru Ra floats on impossible coincidences, and plays with incidents, which probably would play out in real life in one in a million circumstances. Things end conveniently, as they are likely to happen in such high-stakes-plan-gone-wrong kind of stories. However, this shouldn't be a cause for concern. The director doesn't dig a hole too deep for logic and makes sure the narrative pans out as a freakish set of events that are nevertheless, a lot of fun to follow.
And the script shines even more because of how brilliant the actors were - literally, living it in every scene.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.