I loved the core conceit: Why not make a ‘mass’ -style movie with a heroine? But the film is too long, and the cast is left stranded by the simplistic writing.
Spoilers ahead…
In Narendra Nath’s Miss India, everyone speaks like one of two things: a PowerPoint slide, or a motivational poster. Consider the scene where Manasa Samyuktha (Keerthy Suresh, whose styling is the best thing about this movie) gets a gift from her brother. She opens the box eagerly. It’s a watch. She’s thrilled — way more thrilled than a grown woman should be upon getting a watch. It’s just what she needed, she says. Her brother, however, summons up his inner Swami Vivekananda (or Confucius, or whoever) and tells her something like: Time is the most important thing. This watch is to remind you of it. Is the poor woman consumed by some ghastly disease that has her thinking about her remaining lifespan? Is there, inside the watch, a bomb that needs to be defused before the minute hand meets the hour hand?
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Sri Prabhuram
November 4, 2020
First, Penguin and now this. God help Keerthy Suresh.
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Yajiv
November 4, 2020
BR, you were at your punniest best at this review. So many tea jokes! I think my favourite was “this movie is t-oolong” 😂
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Cholan Raje
November 4, 2020
I have a bright idea. Why don’t we make a film starring a woman that doesn’t focus on her gender? Why don’t we make a film with a gripping plot that just happens to have a female protagonist and doesn’t pat itself on the back for it? Up didn’t devote itself to Asian immigration just because Russell had yellow skin.
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Yajiv
November 4, 2020
@Cholan Raje:
I thought Aramm by Nayanthara did this pretty well. A district collector who tries to solve a local emergency, who just happens to be female.
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Vikram s
November 4, 2020
So many tea puns BR… Loved it :-))
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Srinivas R
November 4, 2020
@ Sri Prabhuram – I think the idea of playing the solo lead in a female driven movie blinds her to the problems with the script. Same issue that Nayanthara has in most of her movies ( Imaika Nodigal, Kolayuthir kaalam etc.)
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Voldemort
November 4, 2020
I feel bad for Keerthy Suresh. She seems to really want to break out of the mould but through these poor choices of films.
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Satya
November 4, 2020
Some feel sad for Keerthy Suresh. I feel sad for Jagapathi Babu too
I loved a “Good Coffee-like film” in the past, so Tea kinda repels me.
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brangan
November 4, 2020
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Cholan Raje
November 4, 2020
@Yajiv Oh true. But I’d like to see more of those movies, and more of them, unlike Aramm or Kolamaavu Kokila, in which the female protagonist has an actual personality.
I think such a thing can only happen by ousting incapable actors like Trisha and Nayanthara in favour of people like, idk, Taapsee or Aishwarya Rajesh. And I think it’s been done before too, but much more rarely than it should be done. Oh well.
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Jess
November 5, 2020
Too many feminist movies wrongly assume that sexism is SO overt in the workplace. It’s usually much more subtle, which is what makes it so dangerous, since the subtlety shows how sexism is subconscious.
And I’m somewhat annoyed by her starting a damn tea company, of all things.
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Yajiv
November 5, 2020
PS. Did anyone notice how off the dubbing for the American characters were? They all sounded like Alexa or Google Assistant
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Cholan
November 5, 2020
@Cholan Raje:
Fair enough. I don’t think Nayan has much range as an actor. And while Trisha is marginally better, her “weighty acting” in 96 and Kodi leaned a little too close to melodrama for me. Let’s get some better female actors by rewarding talent, not ridiculous things like fair skin and the shape of their waist.
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Alex John
November 5, 2020
Haven’t seen the movie yet, but many seem to be irked by the apparent ‘tea-ness’ of the film.
Could it have something to do with the tea politics vs filter-coffee politics?
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M R Sharan
November 7, 2020
Easily the worst movie I’ve watched this year!
Despite the plot holes the size of craters on the moon, I was stuck on the fact that NOT ONE PERSON IN THE US SPEAKS WITH AM AMERICAN ACCENT!
Many Telugus are obsessed with the US — and the US is a large overseas market for Telugu movies — so this error should bug them more than other Indian audiences.
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Raj
November 9, 2020
Seeing how bad the staging in this movie made me realize what staging actually was for the first time lol
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Ravi
November 9, 2020
“(who might have been better named Manasa Brinda Annalakshmi, which at least acronyms to MBA)”
Her parents might have thought she would want to do MS 🙂
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DN
November 10, 2020
Finally caught the movie today. DEAR GAWD! WHat was Jagapathi Babu thinking?? I dont have much of expectations per se on anyone else in the movie inc KS’s poor choices. But J Babu???? He can do (with) much better.
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Spandana
November 11, 2020
It goes without saying that the worse the movies are the funnier these reviews get. Shout out to Hriday Ranjan as well! So many punches in his Not a Review.
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