'Solo' Review: Entertaining Emotional Show

Film: Solo
Rating: 3.25/5
Banner: SVK Cinemas
Cast: Nara Rohit, Nisha Agarwal, Prakash Raj, Sayaji Shinde and others
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematographer: Dasaradhi Sivendra
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Story, screenplay, direction: Parasuram
Producer: Vamsikrishna Srinivas
Release date: 25/11/2011

After a serious and intense role in ‘Baanam’, Nara Rohit is back with an emotional treat and this time he has Nisha Agarwal in pair. Let us see how solid this love story is..

Story:
Set on the backdrop of Vizag, the story begins with Gautam (Rohit) an orphan whose sole aim in life is to marry a girl in a joint family as he longs for those relations and bonding. He finds a suitable person in the form of Vaishnavi (Nisha) who hails from a large family.

Gautam tries wooing Vaishnavi and after few incidents of yes and no, their love blooms. However, Vaishnavi is very closely attached to her father Naidu (Prakash Raj) and he wants to give his daughter to a man who knows the value of family and has a large family.

In no time, the matter gets revealed and Naidu makes his stand clear to Gautam. The tale takes a turn when Gautam is asked to attend the wedding of Vaishnavi due to a condition. What is that condition? What happens to Gautam’s love story? Will he remain Solo again? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performances
Nara Rohit is handsome and has intense eyes with assertive voice. He needs to loosen his body a bit and show expressions on his face and come out of the stiff posture. But still, he covered his drawbacks with good confidence and dialogue delivery. On a whole he suits for roles like tough cop and action oriented performances than a sentimental lover boy. 

Nisha Agarwal looks cute and conveys most of her thoughts through her eyes. Acting wise, she must work on performance during emotional scenes. She has potential.

Prakash Raj is impressive as usual. No doubt he is called the powerhouse actor. His versatility and strong screen presence adds value to the film.

A special mention goes to Srinivasa Reddy. He got the big responsibility of leading the comedy track and he did full justice to that. His role was lengthy and the opportunity was utilised properly. He deserves to be given more encouragement and roles.

Sayaji Shinde was standard, Jayasudha was natural, Ravu Ramesh was not used to his potential, the girl who did Nisha’s friend’s role scored few points, M S Narayana brought few smiles, Ali was witty. Pavitra Lokesh looks graceful. Good to see Mumaith Khan back and that too in shape. The others did their bit as required. 

Highlights

• Emotional intensity
• Dialogues
• Background score and three songs
• Screenplay
• Technical values

Drawbacks

• Slight jerks in editing and RR

Analysis
The concept of joint families sounded ideal and possible during the olden days. We were not in a global economy then and families relied on agriculture or family professions. However, times have changed and life’s demands have made it practically impossible for dreaming of a joint family in today’s times. But there are rare practices like ‘Tharaveedu’ among joint family lovers. Many families in Kerala still keep the tradition of joint family alive by spending their annual vacation in Tharaveedu (ancestral home) where all members come together. But in majority cases, the joint families have lost importance as people turned more practical. And this applies to all social classes.

While looking at the film, this is the approach audience will have. But then, more than the concept, it is the content which surpasses all. It is supported by strong emotional graph and the stress on values of family and relationships is what scores the brownie points.

Secondly, it is the dialogues which are written with sensibility and maturity.

Few classic examples are:

• “manchi mogudu dorikite gudilo devunni kooda marchipothaaru aada vaallu”
• “Poyatappudu naluguru lekapothe thappu naadhi avutundhi kaani puttinappudu naluguru lekapovadam naa thappu ela avutundhi”

Overall, this is a film that will strike a chord with the family audience and emotionally driven mass audience. There are no idle moments and the film works as a perfect package of comedy, emotion and sentiment. At the box office, considering the budget and other factors, the film has it all to score success.

Verdict: Debatable concept but commendable delivery