It hurts when certain movies flop. Kalavaramaayae Madhilo is one such movie. Among the three films released today this was the one that was expected to set the ball rolling for the cause of small films. Instead director Satish Kasetty imagined himself to be a la-Viswanath and ended up messing the second half and thereby the movie itself.

What is it about : Kalavaramaayae Madhilo is the story of Shreya (Colors Swathi) and how she aspires to fulfil her lifetime ambition of singing for music composer A.R. Rehman. Shreya is a charming girl who on the surface seems to have everything. A good job in an audit firm, a boy friend Seenu (Kamal Kama Raju) and a dream to pursue; are all hers. But it is that dream (of singing for A.R. rehman) that gives her sleepless nights. To further her cause she joins as a singer (for a small band) in a hotel. Not being a trained singer she lives by her wits and manages to live up to the demands of the guests who frequent the hotel. But one guest, a classical singer (an over the top performance by Vikram Gokhale) finds fault with her singing and chides her for lowering the quality of singing. A hurt Swathi takes that remark as a challenge and approaches Rao to train her in the finer aspects of singing and music. From thereon the story is about how Shreya over comes the challenges and realizes her dream of singing with the music maestro.

What is Good: Swathi as Shreya is good, and perhaps the only saving grace of the film. She has the girl-next door charm and a light-hearted chirpiness about her persona. She is especially very good in the scenes where she pokes light fun of Srinu’s height as opposed to her short stature. But the most remarkable aspect of her acting was the way she changes her pace of diction in the second half. One can easily notice how much effort she has made in transitioning herself from the fun-filled girl in the first half to the more mature and emotion-filled character in the second half. This truly is her film. Tanikella Bharani as Sastry reminds us of the role played by Allu ramalingaiah in Viswanath’s musical masterpieces. He breezes through the support role of nurturing the temperamental Shashtry and the talented Shreya. Delhi Rajeswari as Shreya’s mother is adequate.

What is bad: Satish Kassetty’s story, screenplay and direction are a big let down. Watching the second half of the movie, one gets the feeling that the director has shot another movie altogether. Such is the lack of connectivity. It is evident that Satish Kassetty is heavily inspired by Viswanath’s style of film making. But he sure has a long way to go. His first tips from the master have to be in casting. Viswanath was a shrewd judge of casting. Except when he cast Kamalahasan (who was an accomplished dancer himself), all of Viswanath’s heroes do role playing in the background. That is perhaps the first mistake that this director made. His casting of (a slightly muscular looking) Kamal Kama Raju was wrong. The next is his choice of songs situation and music director, both left a lot to be desired. Sarath Vasudevan’s music especially in the climax song(in spite of excellent lyrics by Vanamali) is a total washout. The movie-killer though was the over dramatic screenplay in the second half. One really wonders why the director should inject so much unwarranted melodrama (about Sreya's father) in the second half.

Me Thinks: Watch it if you are a fan of Swathi. She acts well and makes the first half a reasonably pleasant experience.

Tailpiece: A huge inferiority complex seems to be plaguing Tollywood. Director Satish Kassetty gets a Marathi stage artiste (Vikram Gokhale) and gives him a more meatier role than Tanikella Bharani. What can one say?