In the opening moments of director Neerraja Kona’s Telugu romance drama, Telusu Kada (which roughly means You know it, right?), we meet Varun (Siddhu Jonnalagadda), a chef and restaurateur with a demanding nature. He’s quick to criticize his staff for not meeting his exacting standards. His friend, who often acts as his voice of reason, gently reminds him that while the restaurant is Varun’s entire world as a loner, for his employees, it’s simply a job.
This rigid pursuit of order extends to Varun’s home life too, where he expects absolute perfection from his domestic staff. These meticulously maintained, luxurious surroundings serve as a stark contrast to the profound chaos of his personal life, especially his complicated relationships with Raaga (Srinidhi Shetty) and Anjali (Raashii Khanna).
Neerraja Kona, a costume designer making her debut as a writer and director, consciously avoids conventional sentimentality. Telusu Kada is far from a heartwarming romance; instead, it signals trouble from the outset, promising a narrative that is likely to provoke strong opinions. While the film benefits from impressive production design and V.S. Gnanashekhar’s cinematography, its visual elegance can’t quite mask the deficiencies in its screenplay.
Telusu Kada (Telugu)
The film immediately establishes its central perspective through Varun’s early rants about heartbreak and his reliance on fate. For viewers familiar with Siddhu Jonnalagadda’s previous roles, particularly the Tillu series, where his characters often grapple with romantic woes, some of the dialogue feels familiar. Harsha’s character provides much-needed comic relief, often verbalizing the audience’s thoughts. His meta-commentary on why Siddhu’s characters always find themselves caught between women, and why he’s always there to witness it, is a clever touch that draws a chuckle.
The core conflict of Telusu Kada unfolds early on. The mirroring dialogues between Varun and Anjali during their initial meeting foreshadow the challenges to come. Without revealing too much, the narrative revolves around themes of family and parenthood. When events don’t go as planned, Varun’s inability to communicate clearly exacerbates an already difficult situation. His reaction to his partner’s medical crisis is rooted in self-pity rather than genuine empathy. The film eventually offers a backstory to explain his emotional volatility, portraying him as a man whose fear is hidden behind a facade of machismo. His recurring analogies contrasting “testosterone” and “oestrogen” only underscore this underlying insecurity.
Despite revolving around three main characters, the screenplay feels underdeveloped. Under the guise of artistic license, Telusu Kada often overlooks basic sensitivity, particularly in its handling of surrogacy. The film’s portrayal of the women and their individual struggles remains disappointingly superficial.
The story undeniably centers on the male protagonist. Varun’s complex, contradictory nature is meticulously detailed in the script, and Siddhu Jonnalagadda embodies it with striking effectiveness. Here, he’s not the charmingly chatty lead of Tillu or the conflicted but likable romantic from Krishna and His Leela. Instead, he presents a character who is genuinely difficult to empathize with. His dialogues, which sometimes border on misogyny, surprisingly elicit audience applause, revealing the film’s skewed perspective. While Siddhu’s performance is commendable in holding the character together, the script ultimately fails to justify the emotional torment his partner endures.
Raashii Khanna’s portrayal of Anjali stands out as the sole voice of reason in Varun and Raaga’s tumultuous world, yet her character unfortunately remains underdeveloped. She delivers a performance marked by restraint and conviction, asserting herself when necessary. Srinidhi Shetty, in a morally ambiguous role, adds layers of nuance, stepping away from typical heroic archetypes and being given more room to showcase her acting prowess.
Despite these commendable performances, the story feels distinctly underwritten. Telusu Kada glosses over the profound emotional complexities it introduces. While it critiques Varun’s alpha-male tendencies, it paradoxically allows him to dominate the narrative entirely. The female characters are shortchanged; one is burdened by guilt for not desiring motherhood, while the other is forced into significant compromises within her marriage.
The film concludes on what appears to be a hopeful note, but the emotional scars it depicts are unlikely to heal so easily. Telusu Kada raises pertinent questions about love, ego, and the crucial role of communication, but ultimately falls short of providing the honest answers it initially promised.