Prema Kavali follows a pattern which is almost impossible to overlook. There’s a romantic scene, a song, a fight, a comedy scene, some more romance, a song and the cycle continues. The only different thing about this formula is the presence of two debutants Aadi and Isha Chawla. Directed by K Vijaya Bhaskar, the film has been produced by Atchi Reddy. The film narrates the love story of a guy who would do anything to impress his sweetheart.

What’s the story : Adi stars as Seenu who falls in love with Prema (Isha Chawla) in college. She begins to like him after a while, but the duo separates after Seenu heads to a NCC camp. Meanwhile, an anonymous caller blackmails Prema and threatens her that he would send the picture of her kissing Seenu, to her father if she doesn’t hand over Rs 1 lakh everytime he calls her. She complies and after a point, she confesses the whole story to her sister-in-law (Sindhu Tolani). The latter goes in search of Seenu who’s unaware of the whole situation. What does he do and what’s the story behind these anonymous calls to Prema forms the rest of the story.

What is Good : Aadi does a fairly good job in his debut film. It’s not hard to realize that the film was only meant to promote him as an actor who can dance and fight well and he does well in both the departments. Isha Chawla sticks to her characterization which requires her to either giggle or look serious for most part of the film and she does well. Sindhu Tolani, Shafi, Supreeth and Dev Gill do a decent job.

What is bad: The film is let down by its utter predictability. Although the film never tries to experiment with anything, it still is a tiresome to watch so many clichéd scenes reel after reel that it’s not hard to guess what’s going to happen next. Brahmanandam-M S Narayana’s short lived comedy track just adds to the length of the film. Despite the sincere performances, the characterization of most of the actors is poorly written and they never give you a chance to empathize with them, except perhaps Isha Chawla’s character. Also, the villains’ role is too small and in a way totally unnecessary in this romantic film.

Technical Departments : Anoop Rubens’ music is decent and it’s got a good mix of peppy and slow numbers. Editing by Gowtham Raju is alright, although, some of the scenes especially fights and songs could have been trimmed. Ram-Laxman’s action choreography is good. Chota K Naidu uses a lot of low angle shots and hand held cameras to heighten Aadi’s heroism and also add an extra element of thrill in the action scenes. Vijayabhaskar comeback film of sorts, hardly has the zing or the grace of some of his earlier love stories. Here, he opts for a safer route and delivers a routine romantic film. Atchi Reddy has spent a bomb on the film and it shows on screen.

Bottomline : Sometime in to the second half in Prema Kavali, you would have reached a stage where you can even predict the dialogues. That’s where the film loses the plot. But, the film wasn’t meant to evoke our intellectual side of the brain. Questions like - Is it a film worth watching? How good is the film?, are pointless because you know it’s a star launch vehicle. There’s no room for anything different here. But then, all’s fair in love and war!