A fat man and a hot babe together are sure to arouse our curiosity. And this is what director Sai Kiran Addivi is banking in his direcorial Telugu debut, Vinayakudu.

The movie is the romance between fat Karthik (Krishnudu) and sophisticated Kalpana (Sonia). Kalpana is an urbane, independent, strong, confident and to some extent arrogant girl, who is the only daughter of her parents. She works in an ad agency where she is quite domineering. Karthik joins the same ad agency (with the help of his friend Altaf). Coincidentally Karthik and Kalpana stay in the same residential complex (Sonia stays in her friend Sandhya's flat as her parents have gone abroad for six months, while Karthik stays with his sister played by Sathya Krishna).

Initially Karthik and Kalpana cannot stand each other. Karthik is roly-poly boy with a cherubic face. He does not understand the urban lingo and ways as he is from a small town. Compared to him, Sonia is sharp and smart. She does not like it when Karthik is asked by the boss (producer Prem Patra) to work with her. But situations arise whereby she is forced to be with Karthik. The innocent Karthik starts loving Kalpana, who is seeing another boy Rajeev (fixed by her parents). She later breaks up with Rajeev. It's said hate at first sight leads to love at second sight. Will Kalpana go through these emotions?

On the face of it, the movie is a simple story about two people. As we go further into it, we are introduced to another 'love story' between the second lead pair of Altaf and Sandhya (Poonam Kaur), who play Karthik and Kalpana's friends. The film has some freshness in the main story idea and in certain parts. Sai Kiran, in his attempt to show the ad agency atmosphere, also pays more attention to certain ads which are part of his corporate tie-ups.   

Karthik is shown to be a totally innocent person. Do such people really exist today?

The story isn't without cliches. For instance, the scenes where Karthik conveniently comes when two men are trying to 'misbehave' with Kalpana on a lonely road, or when Karthik gets drunk, or where Rajeev bribes the cops, or for that matter the Shalini episode. The Shalini episode (the girl in question flits in and out of ad agencies and gets involved with most men)was rather stretched and one wondered how Ankita agreed to play that role.

Then there is the leisurely pace of the story which gets tedious. There is not much action or drama happening and to some extent a sense of ennui is experienced. There is a marginal difference in the second half where the pace picks up albeit negligibly. However, it does not make much of an impact. Perhaps the director wanted to tell the tale in languorous fashion but it has to sustain the viewer's interest.

Sai Kiran has tried to make a sincere debut. For a change there was a total break from the usual humour and the routine comedians. Sai Kiran seems to have kept the commercial elements in mind while telling the story rather than focusing on the story. Perhaps he could have paid more attention on building up the love story -- the instances shown are not enough to show how Kalpana falls for Karthik. One felt that the events leading to the climax are rather flimsy.

Sai Kiran has chosen a good music director Sam Prasan and a good cameraman PG Vinda. Sam Prasan's music is quite lilting. The fusion piece Vara Veena (with English lyrics) is quite interesting composition-wise though the purists may have their reservations. The music certainly has a different melody and rhythm. Vinda does a good job.

Moving on to performances, one finds Sonia is full of joie de vivre. She displays the confidence, arrogance and smartness required of the character. She has good screen presence too. Krishnudu fitted the role to a T. However, he could have been better in the emotional sequences. The second lead pair are just about okay.

All in all, an okay watch.

Rediff Rating: