Not long after Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna’s headturner of a wedding in February, a marriage portrait of the couple was out for the Internet to see. The couple, dressed in wedding finery, looked directly into the camera, eyes steely. This wasn’t a moment from their Udaipur revelry, but from the 1800s — a poster from Ranabaali, depicting the terse reality of unions in famine-ravaged British India.
The poster drew considerable attention. The tentpole Telugu title isn’t just marking the return of filmmaker Rahul Sankrityan after Shyam Singa Roy in 2021, but also brings together Deverakonda and Mandanna, seven years since their last film, and notably for the first time since their high-profile marriage earlier this year. It’s surprising to see that their admired pairing — dubbed 'Virosh' by fans — is a result of just two films. A closer look at their films might offer some answers.
Both films were romantic hits that found a lasting place in Telugu pop-culture, their appeal still kept alive in large measure by Sid Sriram’s delicate melodies. But the films, imperfect but meaningful in their own ways, also showed Telugu audiences what a modern romance between two equals can look like.
In Geetha Govindam, the main character fantasises about marriage as early as the first few minutes. But unlike typical heteronormative depictions, the role is reversed: it is the man, not the woman, who breaks into song, in the hopes of finding his Mrs Right. In many ways, the film offers a tiny subversion of the enemies-to-lovers archetype.
Geetha (Mandanna) is a self-sufficient working woman living in urban Hyderabad. When Govind (Deverakonda), a love-sick college professor, approaches her, her immediate tool of retaliation is humiliation. Govind isn’t a saint, and neither are the other men who inhabit Geetha’s world. He kisses her by mistake; her “honour” becomes the cause for heated debates in her family, and Govind’s moronic friend always sticks around for bad advice. But in the middle of all this, we also get a love story that somehow manages to stay light and frothy, in no small part to Deverakonda and Mandanna’s chemistry.
Their off-screen equation lends edge to the alpha woman-beta man pairing — Govind’s incessant “Sorry madams” could easily have come across as insincere or patronising, given the power dynamic that follows the incident. But the actors bring in unique agency to a film, even when the writing itself doesn’t allow much of it. This is seen best in a scene when Govind calls Geetha tough, perhaps meant as a seething insult. But she takes it on her chin. “Thanks for the compliment,” she barks.
A more "serious" romance came a year later in Dear Comrade — serious not just in intensity of subject, but also just in scope for performance. We see it first in the way they fall in love. Unlike their previous film, the romance isn't defined by a generic meet-cute, but is grounded in genuine respect. When Lilly (Mandanna) leaves all the men gawking as bats at a low-stakes gully match like she's prepping for the state championships, he's in awe not just of her, but her passion for the sport.
Although Dear Comrade largely revolves around Bobby’s coming-of-age and, in turn, Lilly’s, as she faces a terrible adversity in her journey as a cricketer, the film is delicately anchored in a romance between two protagonists who want to succeed on their own terms as working professionals.
Young aggression takes on a more protective form as the film develops when Bobby is forced to stand up for Lilly. "Look at you talking about marriage and kids like a loser, when you should be out there playing," roars Deverakonda in one instance, his fury plays out not unlike the problematic young man from Arjun Reddy. But his anger here has substance.
The film could easily have relegated Mandanna to the backseat, turning the story into one of a man’s saviour complex — which it perhaps is in today's reading of the film. But Mandanna refuses to step back, and her partner holds her to it. The result is a satisfying culmination of the lives of two romantic partners, who are also equal comrades.