Geetha Govindam Review: A hilarious take on relationships

Very often, rom-coms are often a good mix of romance, love and a lot of conflicts between the couple. This week’s latest release, Geetha Govindam isn’t your typical romantic story where a princess is waiting to be charmed by her knight. This is a story about how two people fall in and out of love after going through a series of misunderstandings. Sometimes, even a premise like this can go wrong. However, with an engaging screenplay and some terrific performances, Geetha Govindam is one rom-com that will keep you hooked.

There are two things you should know before you watch Geetha Govindam. The first one is that this film works on Vijay Deverakonda’s ‘good boy’ image will make you feel like he’s a representative of every traditional Indian boy. The second thing is that he seems to have an amazing time playing this role. The film takes on a route that can be loaded with drama, and a few predictable scenes, and moral preaching that makes you question these moments. However, the film still offers genuine laughs.

Director Parasuram’s Geetha Govindam revolves around Govind (Vijay Deverakonda), who meets Geetha (Rashmika) and falls in love with her at first sight. However, as his first meet turns out to be disastrous, Geetha detests him. Later, Geetha situation forces Geetha to accept Govind in her family. Will the two fall in love and get married? How does Govind become a part of Geetha’s family? That forms the rest of the story.

Geetha Govindam travels on a wafer-thin story, that often feels like there is nothing new or innovative to the plot. Added to this are the disturbing scenes where Govind take his friend’s advice to begin a physical equation with a girl he’s just met and does so without her consent. Furthermore, the film shows us that even though a girl undergoes harassment because of the guy, she gives him another chance, because she didn’t want to create rifts in her family. Through Geetha’s eyes, we already prejudiced into believing that Govind isn’t a nice guy and his intentions clearly speak. However, her actions contradict these. But going by the applause and laughs from the audience, it’s obvious that they haven’t let these obvious points take centre stage. The film’s strength is the situational comedy that flows organically and doesn’t feel forced. Be it the scene where Vennela Kishore’s misunderstands Geetha’s grandmother’s intentions or the scene where Govind beats up his friend in order to save his own life, laughter is guaranteed.

Vijay Deverakonda, who dons a role quite different from his bad-boy ‘rowdy’ image, takes on something new this time. And he is unquestionably terrific in this one as well. Govind wants a beautiful, traditional girl as his wife. Raised by a single parent, Govind imagines his future wife to be a reflection of his mother. Seems like a character set in the 90s movie isn’t it? This character could have gone regressive way, however, it doesn’t go that way. This may be because the film doesn’t concentrate on this expectation of Govind so much. What makes it even better is that there aren’t any elders who preach this philosophy to him or speak lengthy lines on family bonding. Despite this, Vijay Deverakonda delivers an effortless performance. What makes Govind who is he, is his chemistry with Geetha, played by Rashmika Mandanna. She gets it all right with her expressions by coveying both hate and her love for Govind. Rahul Ramakrishna who played the perfect friend to Vijay in Arjun Reddy is amazing here as well. One can’t miss Gopi Sundar‘s soundtrack that adds immense value to the film.

Although Govind is an old-school kind of a guy, the film doesn’t allow these unflattering qualities to take the limelight. Thanks to the comedy, the wonderful performances by the cast and the music, Geetha Govindam manages to entertain.