Sriranga Neethulu Movie Review: An impressive slice-of-life dramedy that does justice to its universe

One of the three stories in Sriranga Neethulu is about Aishwarya (Ruhani Sharma) and Varun (Viraj Ashwin), a young couple struggling to communicate their desire to get married with their conservative parents. There is also a prospective groom for Aishwarya who stands as a threat to the couple. This groom could have easily been reduced to someone evil, caricaturish or shallow, but the film pulls a surprise on us. Following a scene with him that has us rolling on the floor, he is also presented as someone with too much clarity and wisdom for people around him. He is in the film for barely four minutes but has more depth and colour than the average protagonist of a romantic drama. This is how director Praveen Kumar VSS stands out with his debut feature. Sriranga Neethulu is a rare film that understands the essence of dramedy, straddling the twin moods of this genre with grace and finesse.

Director: Praveen Kumar VSS

Cast: Suhas, Ruhani Sharma, Karthik Rathnam, Viraj Ashwin, Devi Prasad, Rag Mayur 

Sriranga Neethulu follows the journey of four young people whose situations are relatable, heartfelt, and sometimes all too uncomfortably true. Suhas plays Samson Shiva, a commonplace electronics repairman who wants everyone, especially people in his neighbourhood, to know about his philanthropic deeds. Meanwhile, Karthik (Karthik Rathnam) is a drug addict who seemingly has no ambition to put his life back on track. Then we have Aishwarya and Varun, upper middle-class elite individuals, who are finally facing the consequences of their family's underlying conservatism. These three narratives are interconnected yet run in parallel to each other.

A typical multi-narrative film would have found some way to provide a common ground for its characters. Sriranga Neethulu doesn’t do that. The film’s four key characters have nothing in common. In fact, at one point, Shiva casually disses Aishwarya from a distance, lamenting the privilege the rich continue to enjoy in every circumstance. Sriranga Neethulu is consistent in the empathy it offers to each of these characters. They vary in their moral complexities and their relationship with the world, but we root for their battles nonetheless. 

There is a lot to savour here. It’s not just the absurd hilarity of the situations but also the way they encapsulate the emotional grain of the story. At one point, Aishwarya (Ruhani) is compelled to attend a video call from her prospective mother-in-law. She finds a corner in the room that doesn’t divulge anything about her whereabouts. But Aishwarya is mistaken—every part of her room is riddled with secrets and truth bombs that her elders are better off not knowing. That’s the dilemma of being a young lover in current times—you are all about truth and expression, except your own people are probably not ready to hear it. Sriranga Neethulu is exemplary in that it captures these minute complications of contemporary times.

The performances in the film also help us stay invested in the narrative. Suhas is expectedly riveting in his portrayal of Shiva. Ruhani Sharma is impressive in the way she lends her character an understated dignity, without coming across as muted. Karthik Rathnam, meanwhile, delivers the film's most challenging performance, essaying a character that is largely about navigating an internal storm, while maintaining an indifferent exterior.

A film like this depends on form as much as it does on story, and the director is aware of the same. Many of these moments work purely because of Praveen Kumar’s delicate understanding of tonality. Karthik, despite his outrageous debauchery, is clearly a flawed character, and the film never lets us forget that. In my favourite sequence of the film, where Shiva attempts to avenge his rivals one late night, the director makes exceptional use of quick cuts and sound to create drama. It’s a scene brimming with tension, with our protagonist’s wellbeing at stake, and yet all the tension is relieved through our chuckles. It also leaves an impact because the humour continues to ascend with each moment, only to explode with a sudden dark development. Sriranga Neethulu works consistently because it keeps reminding us of its command over its elements.

The film falters in the final act, where the narrative ends up preachy while trying to find a hopeful culmination of events for its protagonists. Sriranga Neethulu also shares a complicated relationship with the narrator trope. The film starts with a wise orator (Tanikella Bharani) sermonising to a crowd about the modern world and its evolving relationship with values. This prepares us for a narrative that believes in telling as much as showing. For instance, one of the film’s best moments involve Praveen Kumar interlacing the problems of our protagonists juxtaposed with the visual of a dholak, forcing us to reflect on the underlying humour of these otherwise heavy, dilemma-laden situations. For the longest time, the director manages to bring a fine balance between the telling and the showing, only to throw in the towel at the end. The resolutions to these individually compelling stories, too, are rather unsatisfactory. The relationship between Aishwarya and Varun—including their central conflict—is not chalked out adequately and as a result, the penultimate confrontation between these two looks rather forced. 

On the other hand, the way Karthik and Shiva confront their demons is far more convincing. Karthik’s journey, in particular, is fascinating. Throughout his downfall, he does not show any sign of redemption or self-reflection but when a big conversation happens with an elderly figure, it rings true. This makes Karthik’s transformation feel more earned. Karthik’s story is also the most heartwarming because it has the strongest supporting character in Karthik’s father (played by Devi Prasad). At first glance, it is easy to read Karthik’s father as yet another dismissive parent figure who only knows how to be disappointed with his son. However, the narrative progresses to situations where we empathise more with the father figure than Karthik. He is a middle-aged man who sticks by his self-destructive son in the most grave of circumstances, without throwing any tantrums. After how we were introduced to him, this comes as a surprise. The story then becomes about Karthik’s father as much as it is about Kartik himself. Sriranga Neethulu stands out for its empathy towards both youngsters and the generation that raised them. 

At a time when films are increasingly focusing on good versus evil narratives, it's refreshing to watch a film that treats its whole universe as one, and accordingly treats its people with equal dignity and depth. For all its limitations, Sriranga Neethulu is primarily a film that’s interested in the human condition. How many recent Telugu films can you say that about?