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In a movie called 'Koncham Ishtam koncham kashtam', the female lead's dad is named Subrahmanyam, and there's a song that ridicules him, which the makers of this movie have borrowed for their title. In spite of said 'borrowing', the title actually fits, since our lead (male), without wanting/needing to, gets to question who he really is, even though this is done by those who are close to him, with him questioning the pertinence of that question itself. Nani, as the main lead, has the audience's complete attention and empathy, since those around him seem loud, dramatic, filmy, and even a little insane in comparison.Also, someone'd remarked that the 2nd half is more like a location documentary on Discovery. It shows the person's ignorance of what a true documentary does, and also indicates that the makers had lost that particular audience-member for the key part of this drama. Not their fault, of course, just goes to show that there is one ignoramus who thankfully purchased a ticket to this movie, but the unfortunate part is that his opinion might be taken seriously by some who might choose to miss out on the theatrical experience. Nag Ashwin goes analog for this, and though I am a fan of digital camera-work in movies being projected theatrically, looks really good. Both the urban sequences in the 1st half, as well as the on- location sequences in the 2nd.My reason for watching this, was an opportunity to see Malavika Nair in action once again, after her fantastic performance in 'Cuckoo'. She does not disappoint, getting an author-backed role for sure, but making it her own, nevertheless, in much the same fashion as she did with playing a feisty visually-challenged lass in her breakout role. Anyway, this is about Nani's character, being one of those we always knew at school, for whom excelling at everything meant the world, and comparisons to the privileged kids ensured a fire in their bellies to go out in the world and make themoolah needed to move up in society from lower/middle class to the have-all upper classes, who do take their fortune/s for granted. This is more about how a virtually irredeemable character such as him, can, quite by accident, and definitely not wanting to, finds eventual redemption (no spoiler there, if you've seen the trailer or read any of the words that are being written as the movie expands its distribution). Comparisons to 'Gamyam' are inevitable at this point, with Vijay Devarakonda effectively standing in the role that Allari Naresh made iconic (though the characters themselves are miles apart, with Naresh's still standing out). There is also a sense of irony in comparing Nani's character to Gamyam's Sharwanand, and Naresh's to Devarakonda's. A kind of delicious irony. And if 'Gamyam' was missing something, it was a strong female lead, which is effectively compensated for her by Malavika Nair's character, who, surprisingly, also acts as comic relief, which thankfully, occurs organically over the course of the movie's runtime. Rajesh Vivek, Nasser, Krishnam Raju, Ritu Varma etc. round out the rest of the supporting characters, and perform fine, justifying their casting, but the movie focuses firmly on Nani, Devarakonda and Nair. One of the best surprises in the movie for me? The inclusion of one of yesteryear's Ilaiyaraja's tracks, 'Challa gaalitaakutunnadi', which has also been picturized almost lovingly, and is placed almost perfectly.A few nits I'd like to pick, though:Nani's character's written in a way that is grounded, while not playing true to character, especially when it comes to conversing with Rajesh Vivek's Pemba in either English or Hindi, which is inconsistent with a person having grown up in Hyderabad (assuming that - its quite possible he grew up in interior Andhra and came to town later), while ensuring Pemba's character doesn't relapse into Telugu unrealistically, once again conflicting with having an American relapse into Telugu during key moments in the flick, that completely took me out of the movie. Pandering to the local audience, but not done consistently. If that was important, why not have Pemba's language follow suit as well?While Nani's character's growth is focused on, and his arc is gradual, using a very soft but sure touch, the same is not true for Malavika Nair's character. Every time her character gets into a key scene, it feels like that was shoehorned in, right from her intro, to sequences where it is necessary for Nani to have someone strong to interact with. It helps that local audiences, using to a very high degree of suspension-of-disbelief, might not pick this particular nit, while her performance anchors her character in each frame firmly.The non-existent sexual tension between two supposedly heterosexual characters thrown in together for extremely long durations of time, a typical example of sweeping-under-the-carpet if ever there was one. Certain 80s movies did a better job of acknowledging this. However, to be fair, it also could be a realistic depiction of today's mostly frigid generation (not their fault, more to do with cultural dictates taken to heart through years of conditioning). This was very Nolan-esque(except for interactions with Carrie Ann-Moss' character in 'Memento'). One of the most important threads in the movie, featuring Krishnam Raju's character is, disappointingly, only paid lip-service. There's another spin-off movie in there, which also might act as something that would act as a sort-of message kinda flick, to do with agriculture, organic farming and the like. I do hope someone sees the potential for that, since it just might be that we're forced to get environmentally-conscious as soon as possible.All in all, content-over-style, with great performances and each department complimenting the narration of the tale, as it well should be. Not to be missed, especially on the big screen, and might even merit multiplex viewings. I know I'm gonna watch this once again.
