Priyuraalu Movie Review: A relationship drama whose rare sensibilities don't hind its flaws

Title: Priyuraalu

Cast: Prithvi Medavaram, Kaushik Reddy, Kalapala Mounika and others

Director: Rama Raju

Rating: 2/5

When a married man is in a secretive relationship with another woman, is it an extra-marital affair or extra-marital love? The trailer for 'Priyuraalu', which is now streaming on SonyLIV, had suggested that a mundane affair can blur into a love affair, leaving the individuals involved with existential questions about honesty, loyalty and transient pleasure at the expense of their beloved ones and at the cost of harmony. Writer-director Rama Raju and story-writer Sri Soumya Akundi toy with characters who are more sexual than romantic. The characters almost deify the act of sex at the first opportunity, especially when they have none to answer to for their transgressions. But is the narration engrossing enough for the viewer to buy into their moral choices, likely dilemmas, and eventual redemption? The answer is a clear no.

Madhava (Prithvi Medavaram) is a TV journalist working in Hyderabad. His wife is in Warangal, tending to his ailing mother. When his neighbour Divya (Kalapala Mounika) finds him physically attractive, she doesn't mind entering into a sexual relationship with him, unbeknownst that he is married.

In parallel, 'Priyuraalu' narrates the story of another married man (Kaushik Reddy), who is busy seducing the domestic help Sarita (Sai Kamakshi Bhaskarla) into a clandestine affair. What consequences do the actions of Madhava and Divya on the one hand and those of the other pair have? That's the climax for you.

For a Telugu-language web film, 'Priyuraalu' presents a very bold female character in Divya, who believes that sex is the ultimate expression of love. Even her behaviour after she comes to know of Madhava's marital status is not something we have seen before in mainstream Telugu entertainment. And the story also possesses a strong conflict plot point, which leads to a coming-of-age plot.

For all its strengths, the film suffers from tonal inconsistencies. At 120 minutes, it is a never-ending ordeal because the conversations are mostly sketchy or dry. The montage songs are just too many in number. A bland commentary on the state of 24/7 TV journalism is interspersed with the main story. Is the viewer supposed to see the track involving a TV editor who bolsters crass sensationalism (he wants to bring out a Me Too story only because the victim is a good-looking female who is ready to mouth crude words in front of the camera) as a subtle dig at the hypocrisies/flaws of the main characters? It just doesn't become clear.

'Priyuraalu' has those unaesthetic bedroom moments that also come undone by the lack of chemistry between Divya and Madhava. When the former is around, the latter invariably either beds her or just listens to her talk. Thanks to his lackluster performance, we don't understand if he is any happier making love to Divya than he is while practising soul-crushing journalism.

The track involving Sarita and her suitor gains prominence in the second half, which is when the film becomes insufferable. The close-up shots are jarring throughout, while the background score doesn't quite redeem the dialogues-less segments. 

'Priyuraalu' would have been a different, more weighty drama had the conflict plot point been introduced early on in the second half. 

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