January 2, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Subbu Mangadevvi
Telugu with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Indian village of Suravaram, the dramatic film “Bachchala Malli” features an all-Indian group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A brutish man, who has longtime anger issues because his father abandonded him, abuses alcohol and gets into fights to cope with his emotional pain while he tries to have a romance with a kind and patient woman.
Culture Audience: “Bachchala Malli” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind watching forgettable dramas that have mindless violence.
“Bachchala Malli” is a lackluster drama where the movie’s title character gets into fights and has self-pity about his turbulent personal life and father’s neglect. This bloated 140-minute movie is a chore to watch because it’s so uninteresting and hollow. After a while, “Bachchala Malli” goes on a repeat loop of misery where the movie’s characters don’t seem to learn much when it comes to personal growth. It’s all just so tedious to watch.
Written and directed by Subbu Mangadevvi, “Bachchala Malli” takes place from 1985 to 2005, in the Indian village of Suravaram. it’s where Bachchala Malli (played by Allari Naresh) has lived his entire life. For most of the movie, Bachchala is a brute who frequently gets drunk, smokes too much, and is ready to get into bloody brawls with anyone, at any time.
Why is Bachchala so angry? A flashback to 1985 shows that when he was in 10th grade (about 15 or 16 years old), Bachchala was actually a good kid who was an academic achiever. Bachchala’s father (played by Kota Jayaram) and Bachala’s mother Rajayam (played Rohini) were proud of Bachchala—especially Bachchala’s father.
However, Bachchala’s life is shattered when he finds out that his father has a mistress named Padma (played by Hari Teja), and she has a son named Bachchala Ramana, who was a toddler in 1985. Padma shows up at Bachchala’s family home one day to demand child support. Bachchala’s paternal grandfather tells Bachchala’s father that he has to choose to live with Rajayam or Padma. Bachchala’s father chooses his mistress Padma and becomes an absentee father to Bachchala.
Most of “Bachchala Malli” takes place in the 1990s, when Bachchala is in his 20s. He meets and falls in love with a woman named Kaveri (played by Amritha Aiyer), who tries to get Bachchala to give up his decadent ways. Kaveri is also the daughter of a police officer (played by Rao Ramesh), who predictably doesn’t trust Bachchala because of Bachchala’s reputation for being a drunken rogue.
“Bachchala Malli” is a tiresome and dull melodrama, with Bachchala and Kaveri having an on-again/off-again romance that is threatened when she gets engaged to another man. There’s also a subplot about Bachchala and his younger half-brother Bachchala Ramana (played by Ankith Koyya) having a vicious feud. Expect to see the usual unrealistic fight scenes, with tacky shots in slow motion. The romance in the movie is utterly boring.
The acting performances in “Bachchala Malli” are mostly mediocre, although Naresh seems to make an effort to portray Bachchala as more complicated than Bachchala really is. The musical numbers, which are awkwardly placed in the movie, have silly lyrics and generic dancing. “Bachhala” wants desperately for audiences to feel empathy for Bachchala, but this entire movie is so soullness, the only feeling that “Bachchala Malli” viewers might have is impatience for this entire messy movie to be over as soon as possible.
Parthyangira Cinemas released “Bachhala Malli” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on December 20, 2024.