Issues and all, this is one of the better products of this direct-to-OTT era. It may not come together perfectly, but at least, it’s not for lack of trying.
Spoilers ahead…
Sandeep Raj’s Colour Photo (he also wrote the film, from a story by Sai Rajesh) is set in the 1990s, and it has many of the tropes of the romantic melodramas from that era (and even earlier): for instance, the opposites-attract construct, with, say, a rich girl and a poor boy. Here, we have a dark-skinned boy named after a dark-skinned god (Suhas, as Jayakrishna) and a very fair-skinned girl named Deepthi (Chandini Chowdary). What’s different — and refreshing — is the depth in the writing, which does a lot to dust the cobwebs off the template. The narrative opens with the news that Deepthi’s father is dead. But she’s cold, distant. She is unable to cry. A little later, we see that she’s unable to feel joy, either. We learn this from her husband, who is not Jayakrishna, and this is not a spoiler as it’s out there right at the beginning.
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Madan
October 24, 2020
Sounds interesting. Don’t have Aha though.
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Satya
October 24, 2020
I didn’t give a f*ck about the main couple, thanks to the way the film begins. But when I knew that Balu lost his sanity, and that Padma is still interested in him, it broke me. That, for me, is the real tragedy.
Speaking of tragedy, any thoughts on how the Biryani scene played out? Or if watching Rajinikanth’s films would have possibly helped Jaya Krishna in someway?
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raghav
November 11, 2020
Hi BR,let me try to do my BR(bullet point review) for this movie
I liked a few subversions where RamRaju (sounds like “Ram Rajyam”?) oppresses the women around him while JayaKrishna shows Rama’s character traits (empathetic,respectful,not easily given to anger)
The entire portion of the ‘english speech’ could be chopped and we would not lose anything.We’ve already seen that JayaKrishna suffers from an inferiority complex based on skin colour-his announcing it on stage made no sense
I like the fact that this movie traces its timeline based on Chiranjeevi’s filmography starting from Jandhyala’s Chantabbai and his movie references galore.While on Jandhyala,I wish Sandeep Raj could infuse some humour into the screenplay as well (on the lines of the terrific hanuman-Jambavan set-up and pay-off)
A comedian turning villian sounds delicious on paper.What could be more terrifying than a villian who has a sense of humour (yes,Heath Ledger,you’ve set the bar too high).But Sunil just couldn’t find this range apart from grimace.I thought the role was very similar to Fahad Faasil’s in Kumbalangi Nights -but then comparing Sunil and Fahad is comparing Day and Knight
I love the way,towards the end,there is a throw away dialogue about Mahesh Babu’s debut (who is the considered the epitome of ‘white handsomeness’ and makes no bones about it)
Dark skinned Hero wooing fair skinned herione is a common theme in Tamil movies but is unique to neighbouring Telugu land.Telugu audiences are used to ‘White’ heroes being wooed by ‘whiter’ heroines (yes “milk-beauty” Tamannah,talking to you).Don’t believe me?Just name one dark skinned leading man in Telugu commercial movies.
Overall,I like Sandeep Raj’s movie sensibilites and hat tips to movies of the 90’s(he could improve on scene compositions and lead performances)
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