Kobbari Matta Movie Review: A film to laugh at ourself

It isn’t often that we get to introspect and comment on our own style of filmmaking, all the while in splits and yet nodding in acceptance. Kobbari Matta is an elaborate satire on the heroics and the melodrama of a commercial hero’s family drama. 

Pedrayudu (Sampoornesh Babu) is the village head and the god-figure for everyone. So much so that no one does anything before he wakes up - when I say anything it could be anything from going to take a dump to giving birth. His family consisting of four younger brothers, two younger sisters, three wives and the servants’ family of three who he treats as family. This family is close… like really close. So close that they all sleep in the same bed. Yes, everybody. Pedarayudu loves his brothers so much that he denies them an education because that would mean they would have to go to another town to study. You know where this is going. Eventually, the brothers decide that they want a life of their own which is the path to all tragedy. Pedarayudu’s devotion to his family (as dictated by his father Paparayudu) and the entrance of Androyudu, Pedarayudu’s look-alike claiming to be his son, the reasons behind it and the theatrics it leads to is the entire film.

Director: Ronak Ronaldson

Cast: Sampoornesh Babu, Ishita Sharma, Gayatri Gupta        

It took me quite some time to string together the actual plot of the film. And that in this case (quite refreshingly) isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This isn’t a film that takes itself too seriously but is meant to be ridiculous and some more. Everyone in the film behaved like they belonged to this bizarre universe and it fell perfectly into place despite the flaws that it carried. Actors in the same scene are switched without any context whatsoever. A character that DIES in the previous scene is hale and healthy in the next. Why? Because the film doesn’t give a damn. Athough that was probably a logistical fault in the making, it just turned into another easter egg that people could point and laugh at. Even the film’s faults turned out in its favour!

All the laughs aside, the film does make a convincing commentary on some “family films” which propogate ideologies which might be impractical in the real world but are projected as ideals of a good human being. Tollywood never tires of glorifying the most ludicrous things that the hero does as a noble deed and that was a running gag throughout the film. What gets tedious as the first half progresses are the dirty jokes and cringe. In comparison to the first spoof by the same makers and hero which was more wholesome, this one lacks certain intactness in the narrative. The film had a lot to say in the same tone that it gets tiresome. The second half however picks up in pace and even writing and by the end of it all, you are laughing. You are laughing a little at the movie and a little at ourself for loving a lot of A-list Tollywood commercial films that work pretty much on the same formula as this one.

It’s a win when you can make commentary while making a joke. So if you have the time, let go of all hauteur, take your best friends and enjoy the cheap thrill that is Kobbari Matta.