‘Butta Bomma’ – Quick Movie Review

By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

A remake of the Malayalam movie ‘Kappela’, the 2023 Telugu version starring Anikha Surendran and Surya Vashistta remains faithful to the original script. Directed by Chandrasekhar T. Ramesh, the only major difference between the two is the sequencing of some events and the locations. ‘Butta Bomma’ unfolds in the beautiful Araku Valley and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

“Since I had already seen ‘Kapella’, the plot twists in ‘Butta Bomma’ were not novel to me. However, instead of being boring, the movie managed to engage me due to its scenic sets and talented actors. The story follows Satya (Anikha Surendran), a young girl from a humble family in Araku, who falls in love with the smooth-talking auto driver Murali (Surya) over the phone without even having seen him. When her parents push her to marry a wealthy businessman, Satya goes to Visakhapatnam to meet Murali for the first time, but instead, she crosses paths with the mysterious RK (Arjun Das).

Unlike the original, ‘Butta Bomma’ also adds a small comedic sub-plot involving Satya’s friend dating a man secretly. The interactions between the two adds a few needed laughs that were missing from ‘Kappela’. Most of my impressions about the plot remain the same (read my review), but it’s the actors that change the game for this Tollywood reboot. Anikha Surendran fits the bill for a naive girl with her head full of romantic ideas. Surya Vashistta is a lot more convincing as the flirty two-faced auto driver than Roshan Matthew. And Arjun Das has some great pipes on him, his heavy-set voice adds an extra punch to his grey ‘angry young man’ character RK. But his character remains a contradictory weirdo.

Overall, ‘Butta Bomma’ is just as engaging as the original.

It’s a 3 on 5 from me. Stream it on Netflix.