Pitta Kathalu

Ramula: The orchid garland 

Ramula directed by Tharun Bhascker is a dark comedy that gives the audience humor while showcasing the unrelenting reality of a situation. The story begins in rural Telangana, Ram Chander (Naveen Kumar Betiganti) calls it to quit with his lady love Ramula (Saanve Megghana). “Brakkapp!” (break up), he screams, inattentive to her tears, and the audience laughs. He is a politician’s son, he believes he’s stylish and mixes lust and love. 

Tharun narrates the role of Ramulawith a swag. What happens in a cinema hall and soon thereafter establishes who Ramula and Ram Chander are. She exposes his cowardice. The audience gets to see Ramula’s feistiness and vulnerability, compared with the duality of Swaroopa (Lakshmi Manchu), a politician steaming at the treatment received in the political world ruled by men. Power conflicts are placed unadorned. While these two women cross paths, their body languages show how things can take a turn. Humour pervades all through the show. 

Meera: The mind games 

Nandini Reddy's Meera shows the audience what she can do when she gets away from family dramas. Meera (Amala Paul) is a ravishingly pretty mom of two, bearing her third child, weds a wealthy, old man. The bungalow she stays in is an observer of the unfortunate happenings in Meera’s life. A clever plot by Nandini as she portrays Meera as a writer who lets her imagination fly. The director tries to show that women writers explain their deepest ideas in their work. Meera deftly changes colors like a chameleon to keep the audience guessing while Jagapathi Babu, cast in an unenviable part, makes it work. The story addresses insecurities in marriage as well as the longing of a young woman. 

xLife: Into the future 

This is a story from Nag Ashwin and it talks about virtual reality, people's eagerness to be in a digital bubble. ‘xLife’ is a fantasy which is a possibility of a dystopian world shortly. The nerdy-looking Sanjith Hegde essaying the role of the founder of xLife is casually dressed as a geek who thinks he knows it all and has no concern for lesser beings over whom he has control over, with the help of advanced virtual reality.  

Shruti Haasan is the lady in pain in a setup from which not just she, even viewers, feels trapped. It shows how everyone is a source of data, of the need to give back power to people, and how people choose virtual comfort over reality. 

Pinky: Remnants of the past 

Sankalp Reddy’s film is a relationship drama. It involves two couples. One wants to be loved, another strives to move from the past. The story slowly reveals how the four characters are tied up on each other. The story is open-ended, at the top of a disordered confusion. It tries to mull over how possessiveness and envy can change the course of things. 

Through the conversations, the audience can interpret the backstories of the four characters to an extent. Eesha, Satyadev, Srinivas Avasarala, and Ashima Narwal try and do their bit. The tagline ‘love is eternal, so is desire’ is the narrative of the film.