His scenes with Sunil are truly some of the best in the film. Sai Dharam Tej delivers a stupendous performance as the underdog wanting to catch a break, a refreshing change from the ‘supreme mega hero’ roles he usually plays.

DSP’s songs add depth to the story, without interrupting the flow of the narrative but his BGM gets a little loud at times. The self-depreciating comedy in the first half too is a win, before it soon turns into a pity party. Because Kishore Tirumala’s characters are nothing but relatable and rooted, with the director introducing them in a very matter-of-fact, non-judgemental manner – a refreshing move. The good news is that there is no forced romance with songs in foreign locales and scenes introduced just to elevate the protagonist. The narrative that starts out not taking itself too seriously and in lighter vein soon turns drab and melodramatic, with the overblown climax being the cherry-on-top. Unfortunately, halfway through, it also turns into a melodramatic story where characters and plot points are introduced to no end and life lessons learnt from every other scene. Sweccha (Nivetha Pethuraj) is Lahari’s childhood friend, jaded by incidents in her life and judgemental about every minute thing.Ĭhitralahari is a well-intentioned film that starts out wanting to tell the story of an underdog who does not give up till he reaches his goal, ably supported by his father. She cannot take a single decision for herself, causing unnecessary friction in their relationship.

But thrown into the mix is also Lahari (Kalyani Priyadarshan), the love of his life who’s easily swayed by those around her who point fingers at Vijay and his failures. He cannot get through life without downing a drink at the end of the day with his ‘glassmate’ Mike (Sunil), a dreamer who wants to be a lyricist and singer someday. On the surface, the film seems like a simple tale, that of Vijay (Sai Dharam Tej) who invents a path-breaking device that can save lives, but is somehow never taken seriously enough by anyone, except for his loving father (Posani Krishna Murali). Unfortunately, he also tries to add threads filled with love, unnecessary conflict, judgemental friends and neighbours, inspirational soliloquys and more into this simple tale, complicating it more than needed. Review: With Chitralahari, Kishore Tirumala takes up the gargantuan task of holding the audience’s interest while telling a tried and tested tale – that of an underdog who’s branded a loser by society but is in reality nothing short of a genius inventor. Both his personal and professional lives are a mess will he ever catch a break? Story: Vijay (Sai Dharam Tej) is a down-on-luck mechanical engineer who’s looking for that big break in life.

Chitralahari full movie tamil dubbed