Ek Love Ya review: A start-to-finish showcase for debutant Raanna, who shows promise, albeit in run-of-the-mill film

Unfortunately for debutante Reeshma Nanaiah, her role is limited to a few scenes and song-and-dance routines.

Raanna and

Ek Love Ya

Story: Amar (Raanna) falls in love with his classmate Anita (Reeshma) in school; feelings that she appears to be reciprocating, so much so that they both even go to the same college. But when a local goon makes unwanted advances on Anita, Amar beats him to a pulp, and lands in a police station. When he’s let out, though, Anita spurns his love and ‘friendzones’ him. What gives?

Review: Ek Love Ya is the launchpad for two actors – Raanna and Reeshma Nanaiah. But as the brother of producer Rakshitha, and, thereby, director Prem’s brother-in-law, Raanna is in the spotlight from start to finish. No complaints on that front; Raanna has been groomed for this over the last several years and that shows onscreen. He has an effortless, easy-going charm about him and is quite likeable in his lover-boy avatar. He’s also convincing as a bearded angry man, punching his way through the bad guys, even though he’s not got a towering screen presence (six-pack-abs nothwithstanding).

Reeshma is the mandatory love interest and gets the standard commercial film treatment – a couple of scenes and several song-and-dance sequences. Luckily for her, Prem’s got music man Arjun Janya on board, who’s composed quite a few hit numbers for the film, like the very peppy Yaare Yaare and Edebaditha Joragide, among others. Sadly, even Rachita Ram, whose role seemed a lot more promising at the onset, and is part of the love triangle, is not given enough to sink her teeth into. Kudos to her, though, for trying to make the most of the little she’s given.

The film is visually very pleasing, and credit for that should go to cinematographer Mahen Simha, who presents the locations and the people in it beautifully, while allowing each to shine on its own. What Ek Love Ya lacks is a good story. Showmanship alone cannot shoulder an entire film, audiences today need good content too, and that is where director Prem falters, presenting really old wine in a new bottle. Now, you may argue that wine gets better with age; it just doesn’t here.

So, what you get is a love story that is almost bordering on stalking, a tragedy, a whodunit and an eventual revenge saga and despite the twists, you never truly feel invested in the story. Even the comedy borders largely on double entendre, which smacks of a lack of imagination. Pretty much everything feels like you’ve seen before. In his single-minded focus of providing a good launchpad for Raanna, Prem puts the need for a good story pretty much at the bottom of his priority list. And that is what will hurt this film.

Verdict: Ek Love Ya is a film in which the acting talent just cannot be faulted. Everyone does what was expected of them – trouble is that the bar was set low as far as expectation of most of them goes. The man of the hour, Raanna, shows a lot of promise, and is a talent to look out for. One only wishes he’d got a better film to start with.

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Cast and Crew

Reeshma Nanaiah

Anitha

Shashi Kumar

Shankar

Raanna

Amar