Ek Mini Katha Movie Review: A comedy that overdoes everything for short laughs

Title: Ek Mini Katha

Cast: Santosh Shoban, Kavya Thapar and others

Director: Karthik Rapolu

Rating: 2.5/5  

When the teaser of 'Ek Mini Katha' was out, its central premise left everyone somewhat curious about the movie. Santosh (Santosh Shoban, a relatively fresh face in Telugu cinema) is depressed that the size of his genital is just inadequate. He faces existential questions and even puts his life at stake for a solution to the 'shortness' problem. By a quirk of fate, his fiance Amruta (Kavya Thapar) likes all things 'Big' (like Big Bazar, Big Cinemas, and 'Big Bang Theory'. What?!). Does Santosh have redemption at all? And considering the kind of inane contrast the story draws between the male lead and his woman, does the film salvage itself? 

Writer-director Karthik Rapolu and dialogue-story writer Merlapaka Gandhi toy with the adult content of the story, stretch it to an obsessive level and overplay everything. The film comes a cropper when it comes to making the audience forget the conflict plot point in a clever way. It's as if the male lead is all about his di*k. It's as if the female lead is all about her neurotic liking for 'big' things. 

In a film like this, which in the end has got a decent message, the songs have to carry depth and hold an inventive power. What we get here are songs where the male lead finds a routine escape by dancing way too much. Even in the bedroom song, it's all about the male gaze rather than about a man with low self-esteem finally finding liberation. There is no 'Vicky Donor'-kinda refinement here. 

The film weaves elaborate comedy around the first night, but the jokes are all about the male lead's barely comical frustrations. A lot of healthy family humour could have come out of this. The male lead is there in every scene, but what is the female lead's perspective? Her body language undergoes an old-fashioned shift after her marriage and she starts looking demure as if she is eager to score full marks at her in-laws' place. 

From a brothel raid to a police station scene, 'Ek Mini Katha' is content with stock situations. The love track could have been soulful had the characters come with dignity. In a scene, the heroine's brother talks about how she, as a kid, went missing for hours because she was too obsessed with watching Tom N Jerry at the neighbour's place. Listening to this, the hero looks at her lovingly and she blushes with a sense of achievement. 

The madcap quotient of the film may not find too many takers but it's the film's only watchable aspect. A YouTube actor plays a jilted lover who wants to kill himself at a wedding reception. There is an over-the-top lorry driver (Saptagiri) who goes out of his way to help Santosh, only to unwittingly bring more problems in the wake. 

The second half is passingly funny and is decent overall with its serious content in the climax. 

Harshavardhan plays a psychiatrist who gives parenting lessons, Brahamji plays a typical Tollywood dad, while Sudarshan is that sidekick who gives the male lead a shoulder to cry. Pravin Lakkaraju's music and Gokul Bharathi's cinematography are so-so. 

The film is streaming on Amazon Prime and is a direct-to-streamer release. Give it a try on a boring day. 

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