‘Raju Weds Rambai’ Movie Review: Despite A Compelling Core, This Romance Stays Outdated

Raju Weds Rambai sets out to tell us a story that’s as old as the hills. Raju (Akhil Uddemari) and Rambai (Tejaswi Rao) are young and hopelessly in love. One has been quite taken by the other over years of stolen glances (we’ll let you guess which one that would be). What happens when the rueful (wealthier) father gets in the way? We all know how this story goes, but still tune in to see how a young voice moulds this timeworn storyline. The Telugu film instead plays out as a cautionary tale about a woman’s fight against the men in her life — men who tell her how to dress, who to step on a bike with and who to marry. Does it matter if one of them is the man she loves?

The film’s take on gender dynamics is as dated as its external conflict. The worlds of Raju and Rambai aren’t too different, except for the fact that Rambai comes from a wealthier family. They fall in love over a mutual love for classic Telugu chartbusters. It helps then that Raju is the star dhol player at the local village band that plays for weddings and funeral processions. Her father, Venkanna (Chaitu Jonnalagadda), shows his love for her daughter by informing her how he’s never laid a hand on her. “Have I ever hit you? Now, how many times have I beaten your mother?” he asks her in one instance, as if that comparison should imply a love for the daughter that isn’t extended to the wife with a black eye. He has a bad leg and his entire identity is reduced to his condition.

Much before her father ever becomes a problem, Raju poses issues in Rambai’s life. We first see it in how he lightly tells her to adjust her dupatta. Later, when she stops responding to his calls, he becomes agitated. But his anger doesn’t stem from rejection, but from a repulsive kind of jealousy when he sees her hitch a ride to college on another man’s bike. Raju’s behaviour is swept under the carpet just as they usually are in these films. It’s as if the film asks us to overlook this chauvinism and instead celebrate his inherent loyalty. Later on, when we see Rambai weep over the tragedy that her life has become — one dangling between a hitting boyfriend and a hitting father, we feel hopeful at this unexpectedly nuanced observation. We expect the film to finally take Rambai’s side, but it doesn’t.

The film is led by actors who immerse themselves in the pleasures of small-town life. So, when they fall in love, we’re taken by their innocence and hope for a shared future. But this alone doesn’t hold up a film that wants to tackle tough realities. Raju Weds Rambai might be based on a true and shocking incident, but this is still a film that needs to reflect the biased nature of hate crimes and how its scales are perennially tipped against women. However, the film doesn’t have the ability to really flesh out these truths.

The climax is choreographed to shock our core, and it lands on shaky limbs. But in the end, it does end up becoming about male rage, a form of ultimate disservice to the suffering Rambai. One’s anger comes from a place of wanting to control his life (and eventually the woman he loves), and another’s comes from his physical inabilities. The winner isn't clear, but we all know who loses in a battle of the testosterone now, don’t we?