Ashoka Vanam Lo Arjuna Kalyanam Movie Review: A jolly-good family trip

Ashoka Vanam Lo Arjuna Kalyanam is an instant entrant into the growing list of Telugu films that are set in likeable milieus like Middle Class Melodies, Care of Kancherapalem, Skylab, and Rajavaru Ranigaru, which was also written and directed by Ravi Kumar Kolla, who is here credited as the showrunner. Yes, the interiors of East Godavari look lovely, with a couple of drop shots capturing the lush scenery, but what actually defines it is the people, the way they talk, how they treat others, and so on and so forth. A character iterates multiple times that his roots lie in East Godavari, with his dialect hinting it, although he’s settled in Telangana.

Rating: 3.5/5

Cast: Vishwak Sen, Ruskhar Dhillon

Directed by: Vidyasagar Chinta

AVAK begins with a family from Telangana’s Suryapet starting out on a bus ride to a village in East Godavari for their son, Arjun’s (a restrained Vishwak Sen in his best role yet) engagement to Madhavi (a decidedly reticent Ruskhar Dhillon), a teacher hailing from a different caste and region. 

Arjun, on the other hand, is a brooding 33-year-old embodiment of every trait that defines an average guy, be it his appearance or financial status. He’s aware of his mundane existence and marriage is the only way to set him free from his inferiority complex. Simply, marriage is a mission he has to accomplish by hook or crook. When the lockdown forces the groom’s family to extend their stay at the bride’s place, what follows is more than just a series of situational comedy set-pieces. Yes, the writing is laced with liberal doses of humour, but there’s more going for in the film, even with the romance. 

At times, you wonder if Arjun really loves Madhavi—although a mere thought of the girl has him blush—considering his desperation is evident. The narrative is designed in a way that allows us to see how the incidents that follow transform his approach to marriage and life. Akin to Uma Maheshwara Ugra Roopasya, this is also a coming-of-age story in a way, with the protagonist learning to take a stand for himself. In UMUR, the device to gauge the protagonist’s evolution was one man, and here it’s his own inferiority complex and his extended family, with the latter serving as both the conflict and gag. Yes, this banter gets repetitive towards the end, when the family and film, seem to be stuck in the same place for a long while, but the better parts outweigh the duller ones.

We get a sense of the madness early on when Arjun’s family assembles to board the bus, disagreements and condescending remarks start to emerge, with the behaviour and the dynamics of these characters setting the film’s comic tone. The characters are the film’s defining traits: there’s an over-creative photographer (Rajkumar Kasireddy), Arjun’s ever annoyed uncle (MCM’s Goparaju Ramana), and Madhavi’s overzealous relative (Kadambari Kiran) who stand out with their eccentricity in both performances and the way their characters are written. It’s their show. Even a mechanic, who barely appears for two minutes, leaves an impression. 

We have seen the heroine leave the ‘guy’ to whom she is set to get married to in the climax of numerous love stories. We cheer for the couple’s union, but ‘the other guy’ is always ignored and forgotten. During a terrific sequence in the second half of AVAK, one of his relatives calls Arjun the other guy and he, indeed, has a point. The other guy and his feelings are always taken for granted, he is a nobody. AVAK makes this ‘nobody’ its hero, looks at him with great love and empathy. It’s a film that likes maamulu people.

The empathy in writing extends beyond the protagonist. Even when a character does something that disturbs the scheme of things, it doesn’t villainise them. Instead, the film compels us to listen to them and why they did what they did. A woman’s priorities, both personal and professional, are deemed a conflict at one point and she makes the decision herself. A move that could have easily been problematised in the hands of a lesser writer is beautifully addressed here. Also, AVAK pulls off something highly deceiving in the second half, in a good way, of course. This film is, indeed, a pleasant surprise and a breather from the bone-breaking actioners we see week after week.