The Great Pre-Wedding Show
A relief from routine action pollution
Sitting in a foreign country, I often tune into Telugu cinema for a reminder of the past, just to have the language play passively in the background and the occasional hunt for a good piece of dialogue that I can recycle back into my rusting conversational Telugu. But Telugu cinema of the past years was consistent in its failure of delivering the right amount of dopamine, as with passing time the jarring sexist, macho heavy films just became reminders of a culture that I deeply wanted no association with, to the point of losing respect.
Rahul Srinivas' The Great Pre-Wedding Show was one of the few exceptions, with a focus aimed dead center at the story and characters, weaving an image of rural Andhra Pradesh that will stand the test of time, enough for repeat viewings with guaranteed laughs. It's the kind of movie that I was texting friends and family back home in India about before the midway point as a “must see” and the movie's writing is elevated by it's cinematic deftness (special mention, the editor of the movie Naresh Adupa who manages to squeeze a few laughs in the oddest of places, it's almost magic) and on-point casting.
After this year's smash hit Little Hearts this is the second best Telugu movie of the year, I hope this movie makes enough money to steer some money from the big budget borefests to something more meaningful. There's still hope for Telugu cinema.