‘Telusu Kada’ Movie Review: A Tedious Trip To The Centre Of The Male Ego

Somewhere deep in the self-indulgent folds of Telusu Kada is an interesting thread about the idea of what constitutes a modern family. A woman walks into the life of a married couple. Pasts resurface and so do secrets. But they try to make their own form of complicated unit to lead a life away from the curious eyes of conventional society. But the film, steeped so deep in a soup of casual misogyny and masculine ego, forgoes the idea to settle instead on a story we’re much too familiar with: a man’s revenge on his ex. 

The Neerraja Kona film kicks off with a plot point that’s almost a soup boy film bible at this point: a young Varun (Siddhu Jonnalagadda) swears off surrendering himself to any woman anymore after a messy breakup. But he doesn’t swear off women. Having become a successful chef, he eventually throws himself into the arranged marriage market. When he finds something resembling love in Anjali (Raashii Khanna), they take things to the next step, where complications await. You can change a man’s surroundings, but can you change the man himself?

A still from 'Telusu Kada'

Telusu Kada tries its best to make us empathise with Varun. It’s drilled into our heads — through Varun more often than not — that his stilted, conceited feelings are because of his sudden orphaning as a child. His strong desire for a biological offspring, too, can be owed to a lonely life, devoid of blood relatives. But nothing explains his opinion of women, which keeps sliding lower, just when you think it can’t get any lower. If a woman refuses to marry and rear children with him when they’re just in college, he cries wolf about a heartbreak. Telusu Kada is one of those films where the guy gives a girl a hard time just because she breaks up with him. It’s one of those films where women aren’t easily given ownership of their will and bodies, and even if they do, they often regret their decision for “breaking” the man’s heart.

The film slathers one imbecilic plotline onto another. This reaches its crescendo when Srinidhi Shetty (Raga) and Raashii Khanna are weirdly pitted against each other in the same house — the reasons for which we will let you find out for yourself. Their scenes with Siddhu seem to come from a place of leaning into shock value rather than exploring interpersonal complexities. For a man who keeps harping about the innocence he lost with the shattering of his first love, the film provides no scope for any development of these emotions in writing. Any scope of emotional maturity on his part is undercut by crass jokes about his good fortune of having two women in his life. While both Raga and Anjali are smart women in high-performing jobs, they jump through hoops to fulfil the wishes of a man who treats women as controlling vixens.

Raashii Khanna in 'Telusu Kada'

If you’re wondering, Varun isn’t just a flawed man. His immaturity is mistaken for swagger here, with camera angles and Thaman’s music treating his problematic gabbing with an elevation reserved solely for the "mass" moments. Jonnalagadda gives a sincere performance, and so does Raashii Khanna, whose character poses the right questions when she is not being perpetually gaslit, that is. In another film, the duo could’ve been enjoyable in an intricate, reflective romance. But Telusu Kada isn’t that film.