BT Rating: (1.5/5)

Strictly OK

PUC Movie Review By Raju Shanbhag

Director duo SR Brothers has a message for PUC students. If you study well and get an entry into an engineering or medical college, you will end up in a plush office with swanky car with good salary. But if you don’t study well in PUC and end up in a degree college, you might end up as an insurance agent; or worse, you may even end up as a movie reviewer watching horrible movies week after week, for the rest of your life! The choice is yours friends!

PUC is an ordinary film with good intentions. Although the film tries to pass on some message to the young generation, the narration and presentation of the film will only appeal to their parents! The story of college students falling in love and ruining their study lives was recently seen in films like TajMahal and in countless other movies before this.

Although the presentation of the story is neat, there is no innovation or freshness brought in the story, which makes the film as engaging as listening to boring lectures in our college days (No wonder I ended up as a reviewer!) It appears as if the newcomers Chetan Chandra and company are willing to act, but their enthusiasm is spoiled by some unimaginative dialogues and pretty ordinary direction.

The film’s content however, is worth pondering upon. While most of the mainstream movies concentrate on love in college and project it as the best thing that can ever to happen human beings, PUC looks at the possible side effects of an overdose of this emotion. As said earlier, the direction is not extraordinary, but it depicts the subject without too much of melodrama and over the top scenes. Add to this a couple of tuneful songs, which are shot well, and you start feeling that PUC is not such a bad film after all!

Newcomer Chetan Chandra acts well. Although he is short, he makes it up with his lively screen presence. The man is Karate expert in real life, which culminates in an almost needless fight near the end of the film (the fight is choreographed well though). Charishma needs to work on her expressions a bit more. Harshika Poonacha looks cute and is a nice match to Chetan on screen.

But it’s the veterans like Avinash, Vinaya Prasad and Ramakrishna who take the cake for acting. We had just seen Avinash in the role of a scheming minister in Vamshi this week and here he is, portraying the role of a helpless father trying to see his future in his son. There is not much change in his body language, but his expressions and eyes make all the difference. Really, he needs to get meatier roles, or else we will be wasting away a fine talent.

Ramakrishna makes a comeback of sorts after a long hiatus. It’s sad that we don’t see this actor as often we should have. He is a chubby character who brings life to any character Vinaya Prasad has few scenes and she does justice to her role.

Overall, PUC is definitely not a must watch. If you are a parent whose kids are not studying well in PUC, you can take them to this movie. They will not be too happy with your decision though!