I know I keep saying this, but I really need to watch more Telugu movies. Exhibit A is Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo (2002), which is one of the most pleasantly insane things I’ve seen in years.
At a friend’s wedding, the lovely Bala (Ankita) meets Nandi (Aditya), the charming, free spirited life of the party. Nandi may be a lovable scamp, but he’s a highly competent lovable scamp, able to handle all the little emergencies that crop up around the wedding. Because of this, and his apparent piety, she develops a crush on him . . . until she realizes that he’s not a guest at all, he’s the marriage broker, and all of his wonderful behavior was for money. She’s hurt, and she’s even more hurt when he laughs off her concerns, telling her that “not every relation ends in friendship.”
Returning home, Nandi is hired to find husbands for three sisters: gentle neat freak Indu (Bhanu Priya), pious Chandu (Rachana), and squeamish Sindhu (Sanghvi). Due to an unfortunate horoscope, the sisters must marry three brothers; fortunately, Nandi knows of a family with three eligible sons: bombastic village headman Krishnama Naidu (Hari Krishna), atheist Chandrama (Suyman), and cowardly but tough talking Sreenivasa (Vineeth). Because the potential couples are so different (apart from Sindhu and Sreenivasa, who are so much the same) Nandi decides to play Cupid rather than making a formal proposal; he is introduced to the sisters as a long lost relative, and takes them to the village to celebrate a religious festival, after arranging for the sisters to stay in the house across form the brothers.
It’s only after arriving in the village that Nandi learns that the three brothers have a sister of their own – Bala! And she is not happy to see him. However, this is a romantic comedy, so while arranging for the brothers to fall in love, Nandi can’t help but fall in love with Bala.
Naturally, like all powerful village families that you see in Indian movies, the Naidus have a rival family, led by the embittered Achamamba (Lakshmi). Years ago, she was betrothed to Krishnama’s father, but the engagement was broken when his family discovered he loved another woman. Achamamba has been planning her revenge for decades, and now she is ready. The law in the village is that no man can marry if he has an unmarried sister. After saving the village’s honor through a (secretly fixed) cockfight, Achamamba arranges for her nephew to marry Bala; the plan is for the groom to vanish on the wedding night, leaving Bala alone and miserable, and condemning her brothers to a life of bachelorhood, thus ending the family line. (I’m not entirely sure how the details are supposed to work, here, but that is the evil scheme we have.)
When she learns that Bala loves Nandi, Achamamba sends a dozen armed thugs to kill him. Fortunately, while running for his life, Nandi finds Krishnama, who is more than capable of beating up that many thugs single handed. (At one point in the film, Krishnama bends a sword into a loop. Using two fingers.) And when Krishnama finds out why the thugs were chasing Nandi – well, as a stern, old fashioned, hot tempered village headman obsessed with honor who discovers that the marriage his father has vowed to bring about is now endangered by a slick talking shady marriage broker from the big city, there’s really only one way he can react; he immediately decides to put his sister’s happiness above everything else, and turns his considerable brawn and surprising brain to foiling Achamamba’s schemes.
Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo is clearly all about entertainment; the dance numbers are frequent and colorful, the humor is incredibly broad, and the fights are huge and completely unrealistic, with Krishnama displaying superhuman strength and badassery. And it is fun.
I’m also surprisingly impressed by the writing. The plotting is certainly sloppy and occasionally confusing, but each of the four romantic couples get their share of focus and development; nobody is paired up at the last minute just to make the ending happier. And the dialogue ranges from spirited flirting between Nandi and Bala to operatic clashes between Krishnama and Achamamba.
Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo may not be a technical masterpiece, but it is hugely entertaining; it takes the traditional Indian formula of star crossed lovers and keeps the romance, ups the action, and replaces the usual melodrama with mellow drama.
At a friend’s wedding, the lovely Bala (Ankita) meets Nandi (Aditya), the charming, free spirited life of the party. Nandi may be a lovable scamp, but he’s a highly competent lovable scamp, able to handle all the little emergencies that crop up around the wedding. Because of this, and his apparent piety, she develops a crush on him . . . until she realizes that he’s not a guest at all, he’s the marriage broker, and all of his wonderful behavior was for money. She’s hurt, and she’s even more hurt when he laughs off her concerns, telling her that “not every relation ends in friendship.”
Returning home, Nandi is hired to find husbands for three sisters: gentle neat freak Indu (Bhanu Priya), pious Chandu (Rachana), and squeamish Sindhu (Sanghvi). Due to an unfortunate horoscope, the sisters must marry three brothers; fortunately, Nandi knows of a family with three eligible sons: bombastic village headman Krishnama Naidu (Hari Krishna), atheist Chandrama (Suyman), and cowardly but tough talking Sreenivasa (Vineeth). Because the potential couples are so different (apart from Sindhu and Sreenivasa, who are so much the same) Nandi decides to play Cupid rather than making a formal proposal; he is introduced to the sisters as a long lost relative, and takes them to the village to celebrate a religious festival, after arranging for the sisters to stay in the house across form the brothers.
It’s only after arriving in the village that Nandi learns that the three brothers have a sister of their own – Bala! And she is not happy to see him. However, this is a romantic comedy, so while arranging for the brothers to fall in love, Nandi can’t help but fall in love with Bala.
Naturally, like all powerful village families that you see in Indian movies, the Naidus have a rival family, led by the embittered Achamamba (Lakshmi). Years ago, she was betrothed to Krishnama’s father, but the engagement was broken when his family discovered he loved another woman. Achamamba has been planning her revenge for decades, and now she is ready. The law in the village is that no man can marry if he has an unmarried sister. After saving the village’s honor through a (secretly fixed) cockfight, Achamamba arranges for her nephew to marry Bala; the plan is for the groom to vanish on the wedding night, leaving Bala alone and miserable, and condemning her brothers to a life of bachelorhood, thus ending the family line. (I’m not entirely sure how the details are supposed to work, here, but that is the evil scheme we have.)
When she learns that Bala loves Nandi, Achamamba sends a dozen armed thugs to kill him. Fortunately, while running for his life, Nandi finds Krishnama, who is more than capable of beating up that many thugs single handed. (At one point in the film, Krishnama bends a sword into a loop. Using two fingers.) And when Krishnama finds out why the thugs were chasing Nandi – well, as a stern, old fashioned, hot tempered village headman obsessed with honor who discovers that the marriage his father has vowed to bring about is now endangered by a slick talking shady marriage broker from the big city, there’s really only one way he can react; he immediately decides to put his sister’s happiness above everything else, and turns his considerable brawn and surprising brain to foiling Achamamba’s schemes.
Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo is clearly all about entertainment; the dance numbers are frequent and colorful, the humor is incredibly broad, and the fights are huge and completely unrealistic, with Krishnama displaying superhuman strength and badassery. And it is fun.
I’m also surprisingly impressed by the writing. The plotting is certainly sloppy and occasionally confusing, but each of the four romantic couples get their share of focus and development; nobody is paired up at the last minute just to make the ending happier. And the dialogue ranges from spirited flirting between Nandi and Bala to operatic clashes between Krishnama and Achamamba.
Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo may not be a technical masterpiece, but it is hugely entertaining; it takes the traditional Indian formula of star crossed lovers and keeps the romance, ups the action, and replaces the usual melodrama with mellow drama.
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