‘Sammathame’ movie review: An attempt to redeem in the final act

Kiran Abbavarm and Chandini Chowdary prop up a middling urban romance that saves its best for the final portions

Love can be a strange thing that one cannot walk away from, at least for a while. The Telugu urban romance Sammathame, written and directed by Gopinath Reddy, explores what happens when an independent woman crosses paths with a man who tries to make her conform to his way of life. She tries to cope and circumvent the boundaries drawn by him, only to realise she is not being her real self anymore. Gopinath’s story mirrors many men and women we see around us. He picks up situations that are close to reality, weaves them into his story and asks men to grow up and accept the woman for what she is. He does this through a script that holds interest only now and then.

Krishna (Kiran Abbavaram) is a small-town guy who has grown up feeling a void after losing his mother. The only goal of this software engineer is to get married to a woman who would fill that void. When he moves to Hyderabad and falls in love with Saanvi (Chandini Chowdary), who likes to hang out with a mixed group of friends and does not mind a drink or two, the conflicts begin.

Krishna’s character is designed like a man who is not in tune with the world around him. The first flush of romance he feels for Saanvi during the pelli choopulu comes crashing when he learns that she has been in love earlier. The many pelli choopulus that Krishna goes through before realising that his heart is set on Saanvi make room for humour. That is when he is forced to mend his first rule that the girl he chooses to marry should not have fallen in love with anyone else before.

Kiran Abbavaram befits the part of Krishna who is protective of his woman and eventually gets too possessive and suffocating for her comfort. It is a character that does not know better and has not been nudged to see the larger picture. Once the characters of Krishna and Saanvi are delineated, Sammathame plods along a predictable path. Kiran and Chandini are good but the story does not give them enough to chew on. After a point, the stifling romance gets pointless. 

Shekhar Chandra’s music is appealing in a couple of songs and Satish Reddy’s camera gives the romance an unobtrusive sheen. Krishna being hell-bent on changing Saanvi, whom he perceives to be Satyabhama, as a Radha who would be in sync with him, continues for too long until their older, wiser fathers (Goparaju Ramana is impressive as Kiran’s father) drive some sense into him. 

The film also runs out of ideas and introduces an episode involving Sapthagiri and Mottai Rajendran that is more annoying than humorous.

With a better story and script, Sammathame would have been more enjoyable.