Movie review 'Ladies and Gentlemen': Love in times of social media
Cast: Chaitanya Krishna, Adivi Sesh, Kamal Kamaraju, Mahath Raghavendra, Nikitha Narayan, Swathi Deekshith and Jasmine Bhasin
Director: P.B. Manjunath
Rating: 3 stars
Madhura Sreedhar as a producer and director has always come up with small budget films. This time, he has produced Ladies and Gentlemen and has given a chance to Manjunath to direct it. The film explores social media and the psychology associated with it. The story revolves around three pairs. Krishna Murthy (Chaitanya Krishna), who is an introvert, is looking for a girlfriend on Facebook. He sends friend requests to all the female profiles. Finally, he is accepted by a girl called Deepu (Swathi Deekshith). When Krishna meets her, they both fall in love.
Anand (Kamal Kamaraju) and his wife Priya (Nikitha Narayan) form the second couple. Anand has no time for his wife, so Priya turns to Facebook for a relationship and finds her old college friend Rahul (Adivi Sesh). And finally there is Vijay (Mahath Raghavendra), a hacker who uses the Internet for cyber crimes. He tells his girlfriend Anjali (Jasmin Bhasin), a model and an actress, that he is a very rich man.
The film tells the story of the three couples using social media in a wrong way and landing in trouble. A Hindi film called Login, directed by Sanjeevi Reddy, was released a couple of years ago on the same theme. Director Manjunath may have taken the idea from the Hindi film, but he made some changes in the Telugu version. Credit has been given to Sanjeev Reddy for the story.
Manjunath is good with the screenplay, which keeps the film interestingly. Also, the duration of the film is just two hours. As a result, there are no unwanted scenes anywhere. It connects to people who use the Internet and discover changes in their lives and relationships. When it comes to the performances, all the young and upcoming actors live up to expectations. Chaitanya acts as an innocent boy, and does a convincing job. Adivi Sesh plays Priya’s ex-boyfriend and comes up with a good performance. Mahat as the hacker is good too. Kamal Kamaraju is convincing as the time-strapped businessman. Nikitha Narayan stands out with her performance.
This film will give her the much needed confidence. In other roles, Swathi Deekshith looks good as a traditional girl. Jasmine Bhasin plays the role of Vijay’s model girlfriend well. Raghu Kunche provides good music and the first song, where the music director appears himself on the screen, is impressive. Ladies and Gentlemen is a thought-provoking film with good story.
