‘Keedaa Cola’ movie review: A laugh riot, tempered with philosophical musings

‘Keedaa Cola’ Telugu movie review: There’s plenty to root for in Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam’s Telugu caper comedy, a laugh riot tempered with philosophical musings. The film also stars Vishnu Oi, Raghu Ram, Ravindra Vijay, Chaitanya Rao Madadi, Rag Mayur, Brahmanandam

Minutes after intermission, we get a wide-angle shot featuring two groups, one at either end of the screen, in a deserted location. It’s the kind of situation we have seen in several mainstream films. Someone is kidnapped and there is a product that becomes a bone of contention. Most characters involved are driven by the desire or keeda to make quick money. Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam, who has directed and acted in this Telugu caper comedy, ensures that the hilarity of Keedaa Cola arises from situations and banter that we least expect. What happens when these two groups face off brings the house down; the comedy is silly, outrageous and is a delightful payoff for the situations and characters built in the comparatively sober first hour.

Comedy is familiar terrain for Tharun — his debut film Pelli Choopulu had an easy sprinkle of humour in a romance drama and his subsequent, Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi, was in the buddy comedy space. With Keedaa Cola, he ventures into the world of a crime comedy filled with quirky and borderline weird characters. It is a wacky comedy on the surface and within its framework, he weaves in philosophical musings about money, power and greed. He also takes a dig at the ways of the film industry.

We shall get to the story and its characters in a bit. In terms of narrative style, Tharun deviates from the safer zones of his earlier films and pays homage to Quentin Tarantino (particularly Pulp Fiction) and Guy Ritchie, and also places a few Easter eggs from his own universe, if we can call it that, to the cheer of avid movie buffs who have closely followed his work. When a key character’s real name is revealed as Kaushik, many in the hall cheered in recognition of the character from Pelli Choopulu, which is in turn, a reference to one of Tharun’s friends. When Geetha Bhascker’s voiceover adds, ‘is that clear?’ to the No Smoking disclaimer, it serves as a throwback to Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi. 

What if you do not recognise these Easter eggs? Does it dampen the fun? Not quite. There’s plenty to root for, even if everything in this weird world of Keedaa Cola doesn’t add up to a brilliant film.  

As though factoring in the audience’s short attention span and the tendency to keep checking the mobile phone, Tharun and his team pack the two-hour film with swift cuts and ample fun lines and situations, occasionally mellowing it down to let a few characters introspect. It works to a large extent, but there are occasions where the narrative comes off as hasty. 

We are ushered into the world of Varadaraju thatha (Brahmanandam) and his grandson Vaasthu (Chaitanya Rao Madadi). Their story is narrated in a tragicomedy fashion. We laugh aloud when the words ‘mundu choopu’ (foresight) are uttered, even though what is happening is utterly tragic. Vaasthu has Tourette Syndrome and stutters, while thatha is a wheelchair user and has a urine bag. But there’s no room to wallow in sympathy as they subtly poke fun at each other’s handicap. Much later in the film, we meet another motley bunch of characters, each with a different physical limitation. There is plenty of humour but not at their expense. The writing (credited to Tharun and a team of writers) must have been like walking on a razor’s edge — to make the audience laugh at situations but not at the limitations of the characters. 

Things come to speed when Vaasthu’s childhood friend Lancham (Rag Mayur), a lawyer who is hopeless in the court but desperate to make money, hits upon the idea of suing a cola company when they find a cockroach in a bottle of cola. He thinks he is smart but in the world of Keedaa Cola, there are more twisted characters.