Episode 160 - Revisiting Vasu (2002): Review + Interesting Facts Tollywood Kaburlu

Credits

Banner: Creative Commercials 

Cast: Venkatesh, Bhumika Chawla, Ali, Vijay Kumar, Manjula, Varsha, Sunil, Jogi Naidu, Achyut

Dialogues: Trivikram Srinivas

Lyrics: Sahiti, Pothula Ravi Kiran & Sirivennela

Camera: Ramesh Babu

Art: Anand Sai

Music: Harris Jayaraj

Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh

Fights: Vijay

Story - Screenplay - Direction: A Karunakaran

Producer: KS Rama Rao

Theatrical Release Date: 10th April 2002

Interesting Facts:

It’s Venkatesh’s 50th film

Harris Jayaraj Telugu debut, I heard it was Venkatesh's choice 

They filmed the last song Vaale Vale Poddula of the film in a set erected at Chennai on Venkatesh and Bhumika Chawla. 

The first set of 2 lakhs of albums was sold in 4 days after the audio release. The audio has got unanimous hit talk all over. 

Writing/Direction

Oh man, where to start? Honestly speaking watching this movie was an experience. One because it was relatable, but two because it could have been so much better. 

If you want to work in the arts or want to be an artist, it will be so relatable for you and it was for me since I want to be an actor and writer in films. 

Movie is basically about a guy who aspires to be a singer and what obstacles he faces to get there. Similar movies are Satyam and then Gowtam SSC. 

After watching this film I realized this and Satyam almost same story. Good intention hero, gets into a fight and thrown out of his house by his dad, has aspirations in music industry, heroine misunderstands him, his friends are there to support him, lastly needs heroine family permission to marry her, father accepts their mistake and he gets heroine in the end. 

The conflict in the movie isn’t well done or strong enough is the problem. The two points aren’t good. 

The first point is between Venkatesh and Vijayakamumar. His dad wants him to become IPS but he wants to become a singer. There’s really only one scene where we feel this emotion and thats when they have a heart to hear conversation. This is the only time. 

Other conflict point is making heroine like him. He does all chiller stuff stalking the girl and doing weird things following her and trying to make her fall for him. 

And they have no chemistry because heroine is not developed properly. What does she do? What are her interest? What are her goals in life? We know nothing about Divya as a character other than the fact that she is Vasu’s love interest. 

Also all of the songs are Vasu’s fantasies about her. He imagines something and then cut pana oru song Thalaiva except intro song and climax song. None of them are natural and are so out of sync. 

Their love story is not believable at all and is so convenient that she happens to stay in their house. 

Also the point of the movie is Vasu’s struggle etc. To be quite frank, we never actually feel it in the movie due to weak conflict points. He gets rejected, he hangs out with his friends, etc. but we never feel the real struggle of his musical efforts. 

Because we don’t really feel invested, director tries to add sister sentiment as a subplot and it works to an extent because its all connected to the story but it felt more forced rather than natural.



Vasu is a rom com so the romantic part is bad but comedy is surprisingly good. Trivikram’s dialogues and Venkatesh and Sunil comic timing are good and keep you entertained. 



However last 50 minutes are excellent and have great emotion. If rest of the movie was like that, definitely movie would have been a success. Climax is clear Trivikram inspiration of hero liking a girl but her marriage is fixed with someone else so inside he is feeling bad etc. 



Direction by Karunakaran is ok. He should have focused more on having stronger conflict points and heroine character to make her a real character so romantic track would have been better but overall it was a weak effort from him. Because the movie never bores you, his direction seems fine, but writing wise its a