Kumari 21F (2015)

There might be a period where people used to get inspired from the films. It’d be a big lie now if anyone says people get influenced by films. I don’t agree if someone says that people start smoking and teasing girls by watching films. In my view, society itself gives birth to Cinema and gets criticized. Every director has his own style of criticism. Among them, late “K.Balachander” had a style of criticizing the society through his characters having less hypocrisy. Sukumar is one such person who got these roots in his writings. So, he turned out to be writer and producer for the film “Kumari 21F” starring Raj Tarun and Heebah Patel. “Palnati Surya Prathap” who got introduced with Sushanth’s “Current” directed this film.

Plot :

Sidhdhu (Raj Tarun) who has an aim of working as a chef in Singapore meets Kumari (Heebah Patel). Has this meeting resulted in a relationship between them? If yes, what kind of relationship? Forms the rest of the story.

Narration :

Every Balachander’s film came up with a small basic point. Take “Aakali Rajyam” which focused on unemployment or “Anthuleni Katha” which focused on middle class lives, the basic point was very small yet narrated a lot more things. Same is the case with Kumari 21F. On seeing the above “plot” section, one can think that it’s a simple story line but it discussed a lot of things in its narration. Firstly, Sukumar who came up with such plot and narration that reminded Balachander once again, should be appreciated.

Sukumar often faces discrimination that his characters are more of psychopaths and have a lot of negativity.  But all his main characters lie far away from regular human hypocrisy which cannot be observed by many people. Generally, he creates the male lead in that way but here he came up with such “female” character. Surya Prathap’s direction to these characters was very good.

Kumari, who does everything from the heart and Sidhdhu who has a lot of confusion and doubts regarding Kumari are the examples for Sukumar reminded Balachander’s style. Scenes like Kumari feeling happy when Sidhdhu reveals about his first kiss to his friends have Sukumar’s signature. Meanwhile Surya Prathap attracted with the visuals of “Meghalu Lekunna” and “Love Cheyyala Vadha” songs.
While first half entertained, second half touched the original story point completely. Several scenes exposed the hidden human hypocrisy in relationships. I loved the scenes where Kumari encourages Sidhdhu to have fun with another girl by saying “Premante manam preminche vaallani santosha parachadame…” and Kumari saying “Thappu chesthe, thappu chesina Kumari ni preminchaali. Thappu cheyakapothe, thappu cheyani Kumari ni preminchaali…” These two scenes conveyed the meaning of real love which most of us do not know. Moreover, it made Kumari a highly respectable character. It’s hard to resist from appreciating writers and director for this and for narrating the same kind of story in an opposite direction when it came to Sidhdhu’s parents.

A special mention should be given to the pre-climax and climax parts. I felt an eminent respect towards the film during the scene where Sidhdhu reads a letter written by Kumari and taking a decision with “maturity” even after knowing her past and present lives. In addition to this, the ending scene of this film was like having a tasty desert after a delicious meal. No point of the story was left without justifying by the end.

So, Kumari 21F is a must-watch creative, crazy yet a true work that exposed the hidden human hypocrisy in relationships.

Coming to performances, Raj Tarun and Heebah Patel absolutely suited their characters. Raj succeeded in portraying his character’s confusion and doubtful nature whereas Heebah succeeded in portraying her character’s maturity. Noel, Naveen and Sudarshan who acted as Sidhdhu’s friends were apt for their roles. It’s good to see Hema in the role of Sidhdhu’s mother who performed within character’s boundaries rather than someone like Pragathi who comes up with an exaggerated performance.

Eminences :

  1. Sukumar’s Story, Screenplay & Dialogues. Sukumar did complete justice to his story with his screenplay and dialogues without leaving a small aspect unattended.
  2. Surya Prathap’s Direction. Giving entire credit to Sukumar is not fair because a good director always respects the writer and doesn’t take the film out of story’s boundaries. Surya Prathap succeeded in this aspect.
  3. Devi Sri Prasad’s Music. “Meghalu Lekunna” can be quoted as the most beautiful composition in recent times. Using its interludes throughout the film with a violin brought the film closer to the heart.
  4. Rathnavelu’s Cinematography. The best thing about this guy’s work is “lighting”. He knows well what kind of lighting suits the scene. Some examples for this are, “Meghalu Lekunna” song, scenes like Sidhdhu watching Kumari in a mirror and reading her letter.
  5. Production Values. An ample budget was allocated for this film by Thomas Reddy and Vijaya Prasad.
  6. Raj Tarun and Heebah Patel. As said above, both did complete justice to their characters.
  7. Conclusion. This film’s conclusion is the best conclusion for this story hence making it an adorable film.

Lowlands :

  1. Adult Content.  As this film portrays the inner personalities of human beings, screenplay had a lot of adult content. We need to wait how all set of audiences embrace this.
  2. Editing (Censor Cuts). Censor Board issued a “A” certificate for this film prescribing more than 17 cuts in lots of scenes and lyrics too. This interrupted the film’s flow of narration, especially in the first half.

Click here for Telugu version of this Review…

2 thoughts on “Kumari 21F (2015)

  1. I would disagree again with the lowlands that you’ve mentioned..because I think the adult content was not something weird but it was very close to reality and people should not wait but accept this because this is exactly what happens in real life. If writers like you call it adult content then people will accept the same thing..instead you should have added this as the director’s attempt in breaking stereotypes and making a wonderful attempt and excelling at it. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Reader,

      Your comment had a point to oblige. I was being neutral in mentioning “adult content” as lowland as I saw many people disliking it. However, I welcome your opinion that director tried to break the stereotype characterisations which is even my opinion about. Thanks for commenting out the right thing 🙂


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