#Single, Anuraga, Caarthick Raju, comedy, Indu, Ivana, Kalpa Latha, Kalpalatha Garlapati, Ketika Sharma, movies, reviews, Sree Vishnu, Vennela Kishore, VTV Ganesh
May 12, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Caarthick Raju
Telugu with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the romantic comedy film “#Single” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A bachelor and his best friend get involved in various hijinks when the bachelor romances two women at the same time.
Culture Audience: “#Single” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and people who don’t mind watching mindless romantic comedies.
“#Single” has a plot that’s entirely too flimsy for this tiresome romantic comedy to be stretched to 130 minutes. This irritating flop (about a manipulative bachelor involved in a love triangle) is filled with stale jokes and an odious concept that it’s supposed to be cute for men to treat women like pawns. Needless to say “#Single” is neither romantic nor funny.
Written and directed by Caarthick Raju, “#Single” is essentially a movie that has one or two jokes that are run into the ground early and often. Vijay (played by Sree Vishnu) is a 35-year-old bachelor who works at a bank with his best friend Aravind (played by Vennela Kishore), who is engaged to be married. Vijay is a tactless boor who constantly embarrasses people who are close to him because he says rude or inappropriate things.
Vjay has no self-awareness of how obnoxious he is. It’s supposed to make Vijay look like an “underdog.” Needless to say, Aravind’s fiancée Gayathri (played by Anuraga) doesn’t like Vijay. Gayathri is not in the movie enough to make a difference to the plot. Avarind spends more time with Vijay than with Gayathri.
Vijay sees Poorva/Purva, whose name is spelled both ways in the movie, on a dating app and is immediately smitten. Just by chance, Vijay sees Poorva/Purva (played by Ketika Sharma) in person on a train and stages a scene so that he looks like a “hero” when dealing with some hoodlums on the train. But Poorva/Purva doesn’t see this set-up. Instead, Vijay catches the eye of Harini (played by Ivana), who is immediately attracted to Vijay and wants to date him. The rest of “#Single” includes a needlessly convoluted plot about Vijay pretending to be interested in buying an Audi from Poorva/Purva, who’s a salesperson at a car dealership.
Vijay also plays mind games with Harini. Harini’s unnamed mother (played by Kalpa Latha, also known as Kalpalatha Garlapati) needs medical surgery that the mother cannot afford, so the movie goes off on a tangent about whether or not Vijay will give money to Harini for the surgery. There’s also a mishandled subplot about the bank manager boss (played VTV Ganesh), who is married, having an affair with a bank cashier Kalyani (played by Indu), who is young enough to be the boss’ daughter. Predictably, Vijay and Avarind get involved in this mess. Aravind is Vijay’s buffoonish sidekick throughout this irksome movie.
The acting performances in “#Single” are annoying but some people might get a few laughs if their standards are very low. There are some generic song-and-dance numbers. None of it is fun to watch. “#Single” ends abruptly and announces that the story will be continued in a sequel. It’s a sequel that most people who’ve seen “#Single” will not want or care to see at all.
Geetha Arts and Kayla Films released “#Single” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on May 9, 2025.