Varun Sandesh has decent hits like ‘Happy Days’ and ‘Kotha Bangaru Lokam’. But his past few films like ‘Maro Charitra’ and ‘Kurradu’ have put him under some pressure to deliver a hit. ‘Happy Happy Gaa’ comes at such a crucial time, when Varun has to prove himself to critics that he can carry a film. With a new director at the helm and two heroines to boost, will ‘Happy Happy Gaa’ deliver what Varun is looking for?

What’s it about: Santosh, an orphan, is a happy go lucky guy who works as a gift consultant, who delivers gifts from his clients to their loved ones. He meets Pooja, an NRI with divorced parents, and falls head over heels for her. Knowing that Pooja doesn’t think that love exists in the world, Santosh decides to woo her ‘differently’. He writes love letters and shows it to Pooja saying that he has written them for his ‘dream girl’. Obviously ‘dream girl’ is just a name which he actually uses to refer to Pooja.

Finally Pooja is convinced that Santosh is honest, she goes to find his dream girl. Thanks to some drama found only in movies, she assumes one Priya to be Santosh’s ‘dream girl’. She convinces Priya that her ‘best friend of ten days’ is truly in love with Priya!

The match is made, but it is only discovered later that Priya is none other than local goon’s sister. What happens next – Will Priya fall for Santosh? Will Santosh clear the confusion? How will Pooja realize that she has fallen for Santosh? What will Priya’s goon brother do? Find answers to all these questions only in ‘Happy Happy Gaa’.

What is Good: Varun Sandesh, who plays Santosh, has improved his diction. His character as a gift consultant is new for Telugu cinema, even though the practice itself is not too strange.

Vega, as Pooja, makes a ‘nice’ entry into Telugu. Saranya Mohan does a good job yet again, and uses her eyes to convey a lot in the film. In spite of her small role as Priya, she manages to emerge as the best of the three main leads.

Ali, who acts as ‘Varun Jet Li’, creates some funny moments of the film. His spoof on Hindi ‘Ghajini’, with six-pack written on his belly is a laugh out loud scene. Ravi Prakash, a dubbing artist, acts as Suri, a local goon and he does his role with honesty.

What is bad: While making Varun as ‘gift consultant’ is appreciable, his character isn’t etched well. Most of the time, he behaves like a matured teenager. Varun Sandesh chooses being over the top for almost every expression. Whenever Varun and Vega voice the words ‘best friend’, ‘lover’, ‘dream girl’, ‘love success’, ‘love letter’ etc. it makes you cringe, because that is hardly the way normal people talk.

The story could have gone on to register with teenagers, if it was dealt with care. But bad dialogues and amateur direction make the film almost unbearable at times.

The climax is confusing and raises serious questions about the honesty of the characters. Especially after one particular scene in the climax, which is the result of our hero’s maturity, the writers hardly had any choice but to take the story one way. Instead of blasting off the hero’s character, an unnecessary ‘hope’ angle is given to the climax. As a result the ending is far from convincing and the reasoning offered is half baked.

Technical Departments: : Music for songs and the background by Mani Sharma is good in patches. However the songs are saved because of Sirivennela’s lyrics. In fact it is only one song by Sirivennela that carries the entire meaning and feel of the film. That a song carries a film’s USP goes onto show how the screenplay writer and director failed to maintain the feel of the film.

Final Point: Soft love stories are always watched by people of all ages. ‘Nuvve Kavali’, ‘Manasantha Nuvve’, ‘Nuvve Nuvve’ etc. have all been able to entertain audiences because of the honesty the main characters portray. The endings of these films work around this honesty! It is exactly where ‘Happy Happy Gaa’ fails to convince. Otherwise the film had a chance to be encouraged.