With the Great Story of Soda Buddi, it is not that debutant director Jyothi Rao Mohith miscalculated his filmmaking sense; he probably underestimated the mediocrity of his genius. But, without doubt, it does achieve to do what most filmmakers dread -- irritate the viewers.
With an abnormal length (154 minutes), the film is neither a melodramatic take on a father and son relationship, nor is it teenage romance nor is it horror. And by the end of it, you are left wondering, was it the director’s fault of making the film or was it your fault to have spent time and money to watch it.
In short, the film is about unfulfilled dreams of the dead, which the director projects with a lot of subplots. It revolves around Soda Buddi and his love stories, a short-film director, a boy who is trying hard to get some money to solve his sister’s problem and the relationship between a father and his grown up son.
Though the film begins well, the director loses all the plots midway. To get some connect with the audience, he tries using double meaning and vulgar dialogues. A couple of scenes even achieve comic lunacy.
With many newcomers, there is an overdose of Utpal, the hero of the film, who overreacts in most situations. Sushmita and Anusha as heroines have individually managed to do well in their debut. Achyuth Kumar’s presence does very little to the film. The director has taken an actor like Rangayana Raghu for granted and the few scenes with him do not create a good impression.
Cameraman Harish Nayak fails to create any magic, although he has managed to capture some good locations for the songs. The editor’s job is quite shabby and he can take credit for the film’s collapse.
Music director Mithun has tried to come up with a decent score.
Overall, Jyothi Rao Mohith has the flair, but he should not have begun his journey by claiming ‘greatness’.