Thellavarithe Guruvaram movie review: Despite an interesting premise, the Manikanth Gelli directorial tests your patience

Thellavarithe Guruvaram, directed by Manikanth Gelli, starts with a priest reading a wedding card for Veeru and Madhu. Their respective families get busy with the wedding preparations, and both Veeru and Madhu too seem eager to get married to each other. However, hours before their wedding, both of them plan to elope separately without telling anyone. It’s an interesting premise, and the film too makes you curious to know why they don’t seem interested in getting married. But then, there’s a big problem with Thellavarithe Guruvaram. It doesn’t quite figure out how to tell the story in an interesting manner, and this issue keeps compounding as the narrative progresses. [caption id=“attachment_9472931” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Sri Simha and Chitra Shukla in a still from Tellavarithe Guruvaram[/caption] The title of the film literally translates to - It’ll be Thursday At The Crack Of Dawn. And so, Veeru (Sri Simha) and Madhu (Misha Narang) are in a race against time to get away from each other, and their respective families. But why do they want to run away, in the first place? For Veeru, it’s Krishnaveni (Chitra Shukla), and for Madhu, it’s the idea of getting married in first place. The rest of the story is all about how the lives of Veeru and Madhu change over the course of the night. Although the story itself sounds like a sweet rom-com, it falters a lot when it comes to the screenplay. Ten minutes into the story, almost every other scene feels like a cliche. Take for instance, the reason why Veeru falls in love with Krishnaveni and the many issues that they face in their relationship, the film doesn’t try to find a new angle in their segment. And the actors themselves don’t get enough material to work with to make the proceedings lively. Manikanth Gelli treads into the territory of _Jab We Me_t to narrate this story and showcase how the two characters change each other. Instead of Geet from Jab We Met, it’s Veeru who is left heartbroken here. It is one of the very few things that’s remotely interesting about Thellavarithe Guruvaram. The whole aspect of racing against time is completely lost and it makes you feel that the dawn may never come. [caption id=“attachment_9472941” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Misha Narang in Tellavarithe Guruvaram[/caption] Among all the actors, it’s Satya who stands out with his performance as Veeru’s uncle, who throws his weight around. It reminds you of a similar character player by Sunil in Manmadhudu, although Satya brings his own style to the character. You can’t help but feel bad for Sri Simha and Misha Narang, who try hard to make things work. Chitra’s role too seems a tad too trivial. The film has no sense of direction or urgency, and it reflects on the performances of the lead characters too. Despite a runtime of just two hours, Thellavarithe Guruvaram feels too long to sit through and it tests your patience. You neither care about the fate of the couple or how they find love for each other. When the end credits roll, you almost breathe a sigh of relief that the whole ordeal is over. And somewhere in the process, a heartwarming tale of a young couple, finding love in the middle of nowhere, is lost.