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I liked this all girls album by MM Keeravani when I happened to hear it a couple of years ago. Then I looked for the movie reviews and found the plot intresting. Since then I wanted to see this movie but couldn't due to nonavailability of VCD. Lately I came to know that AOR had been remade in Hindi as "Sunday". I avoided all the reviews and interviews about "Sunday" as I feared it might give away the basic plot and I wanted to see the Telugu version ONLY first. Atlast I happened to see the movie a couple of weeks ago and the wait was worth. I enjoyed the movie thoroughly even though I couldn't follow the dialogues completely. It was so different from a regular Telugu potboiler - experimental, daring and (cliched to say) refreshing. Also I became the fan of Charmee Kaur after seeing this movie.

Anukokunda Oka Roju, roughly translating to "On that day" is about a aspiring singer Sahasra (Charmee Kaur) with a troubled family background. Her parents are divorced, Sahasra living with her father & a nagging stepmother to complete her studies on financial compulsion. She takes up chorus singing for financial independence. Sahasra's routine life takes a turn when she accompanies her friend to a birthday party. She wakes up to find herself at home, later chased by a funny taxi driver (Shashank) claiming his debt of Rs. 450/- and a few thugs making a couple of attempts on her life. Sahasra takes the help of fruit juice addicted inspector (Jagapathy Babu) and unravels the mystery that made her lose a day in her life.

{mosimage}Anukokunda Oka Roju can best be remembered for following reasons - a slimmed down, no make-up Charmee Kaur, no frills attached straight forward screenplay, magical musical score by MM Keeravani and a functional photography. Also AOR has its share of loveable moments and characters like the funny tuition master, bunch of kids and Swetha, a wild friend of Charmee. Also the suspense just heightens when there are attempts at Charmee, mentions of daterape drug & indications that she had been raped, keeping the viewers engrossed about what had happened that night. In the whole process the taxi driver comedy just gets lost.

Jagapathy Babu comes on screen effortlessly as suspended Police Inspector. Seems his presence in the movie was kept under wraps till the theatrical release which had worked for the movie. He was not a conventional hero of the movie but a vital character in unraveling the mystery. He also looked charming in that role. But all said and done, it is Charmee's movie all the way. Since the movie is all about her, the weight automatically is transferred to her shoulders. This girl hadn't let down her responsibility as well. Charmee looked very girlish in this movie convincingly as a college student.

{mosimage}There are few holes in the screenplay conspicuous at sometimes like didn't even Swetha know what happened on the party night or there was no concern about how Sahasra returned home. Screenplay tends to drag a bit in the second half but regains momentum towards the end. The final episode on attempt at Sahasra's life is not worth the suspense built over for a period of time, yet passable. But forgive the peccadiloes, enjoy the movie, not this kind of experimental movies come in Telugu everyday.

Coming to my favourite aspects of the movie it is the lilting score of MM Keeravani that hooked me to the movie in the first place. "I wanna swing", "Right O Left O", "Evvaraina Choosuntara" and the "Humming" just keeps coming in mind for days since you have heard the album first. Also the re-recording is typical MM Keeravani style in many places. He is one of the most underrated musician of our times. All the songs are sung by "Nightingale" Shreya Ghosal & Sunidhi Chauhan, that pretty much sums up the melody.

The director Chandrasekar Yelati must be commended for this novel effort on Telugu screen. I read somewhere that this plot is "inspired" from an Australian novel / movie - "Saturday". Let it be, as long as it is refreshing in Indian screen, I don't mind the source material.

This movie DVD is available for Rs. 149/- with English subtitles and plain VCD for Rs. 49/- under Aditya Videos Label.
 
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