Vijay Deverakonda’s Geetha Govindam: What Works, What Doesn’t

Geetha Govindam is a romance – family drama starring the Arjun Reddy sensation Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna in the lead roles. Nithya Menen has an extended cameo, and there are other known faces like Subbaraju, Vennela Kishore and Rahul Ramakrishna in the support cast. The film is directed by Parasuram.

Plot: Vijay Govind (Vijay) falls for Geetha (Rashmika) at first sight. While he is a good-natured gentleman, an incident during a bus journey leads her to believe that he is a pervert of questionable character. As fate would have it, Govind's sister is arranged to wed Geetha's brother (portrayed as a rich thug). Govind has to keep the bus incident under wraps and not let the truth reach her brother. The remainder of the love story is about the events that lead up to Geetha discovering his true colours.

What Works

• Vijay Deverakonda's natural charm, good looks and easy acting style work perfectly for the film. After the dark and edgy Arjun Reddy, this is contrastingly a breezy film that will appeal to wider sections of the audience.
• Director Parasuram packs the film with enough fun and drama to keep the viewers hooked.
• Rashmika looks extremely beautiful in gorgeous costumes and shares great chemistry with Vijay. This young lady from Karnataka is convincing with her Telugu lines as well.
• Ramakrishna is hilarious as the friend who keeps giving risky ideas to Govind. The two repeat their camaraderie from Arjun Reddy here as well. Comedian Vennela Kishore is a riot in the final half hour of the film.
• The 'Inkem Inkem' number by Gopi Sundar is a sensational hit and the crowd cheers whenever there is a musical cue from this song. 'What the Life' is another crowd-pleasing 'bar anthem'.

What Doesn't 

• The hero is shown as someone who is submissive and meek, and Geetha bosses him around based on her misconception about his character. These sequences are over-stretched. How Geetha eventually ends up being attracted to him also feels too convenient and predictable. Finally, he lets go of his honour (all in the name of humour!) just to be with her.

• We are also shown that the handsome hero attracts a lot of attention from women. He keeps shying away from them and doesn't succumb to the attention. It's hard to fathom why he continues to be attracted to an unreasonable girl who doesn't treat him well for the most part.

• At a runtime of close to 150 mins, the film could've definitely been tighter.
• In the second half, some of the support characters like the loud and sometimes-offensive grandmother are irritating.

Final Word: Despite the hiccups, Geetha Govindam has enough goodies for the audience to have an enjoyable time at the theatre.