Miss India movie review: Despite Keerthy Suresh and Jagapathi, this under-brewed tale doesnt impress – The Hindu
In a conventional commercial movie, even a few years ago, a businesswoman would be portrayed as a haughty harpy who needed to be tamed. she is not someone who can lead by example. In that sense, it’s rare to have a story woven around a female lead who dreams of building a business empire on her terms and is unapologetic about it.
Newcomer director Narendra Nath, who has written Miss India (broadcast on Netflix in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam) along with Tharun Kumar, pits a young woman from a middle-class Indian family against an American corporate giant. Why we? because the idea is to sell Indian chai in a market dominated by coffee. a girl who understands the therapeutic effects of chai with different herbs made by her grandfather, an ayurveda practitioner (rajendra prasad), wants the world to appreciate it. Narendra Nath also weaves together themes of cutthroat business and everyday sexism.
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manasa samyuktha’s (keerthy suresh, who insists that she is not only samyuktha but manasa samyuktha throughout the movie) family lives in lambasingi near visakhapatnam. Ella Samyuktha is one of the best in her class and when she is asked about her future plans, she says that she wants to be a businesswoman. even as a passing reference, we have no idea who or what inspired it.
Years later, when the family is going through tough times, his mother (nadhiya) and older brother (kamal kamaraju) say that he must look for a job that will guarantee him financial security. it is a familiar conversation that one would hear in many homes. This argument continues even after the family moves to San Francisco, where the brother has landed a well-paying job and can afford a spacious villa.
Samyuktha’s gradual transition from India to the United States is shown more through its style than through cultural changes. to give credit where credit is due, the director doesn’t turn her into a woman of power overnight. there’s enough room to show her trying to find her voice and assert herself from it.
There are clues that samyuktha isn’t a pushover: when he shows up in a black suit after naveen chandra tells him it wouldn’t suit him, and when he tells a colleague that a boyfriend can’t be “a good partner”. ‘if he and her family expect her to give up her dreams. And no, she doesn’t agree with a man’s proposal of ‘a simple life, a simple wife’, in other words, a life with no room for her entrepreneurial dreams.
When she takes the first step towards her business, the director creates ‘massive’ moments. She has an idea, which is rejected by the owner of a coffee chain, Kailash Shiva Kumar (Jagapathi Babu). in return, she comments that fate will decide if she will meet her level of success or surpass it. Despite all that clever talk, she hasn’t even googled it. she doesn’t know what he looks like when they first meet!
However, the corporate tug-of-war has some hilarious moments to prove that samyuktha is a smart cookie. could definitely have been a smarter battle of wits.
miss india (her brand name chai) is well-meaning to show a woman fulfilling her dreams, but would have benefited from better writing than lame lines like “coffee is not my cup of tea “.
Furthermore, chai is no stranger to the United States. many indian restaurants serve it and there is starbucks chai tea latte. just say.
this chai coffee story feels lackluster, despite the best efforts of keerthy suresh and jagapathi babu. Rajendra Prasad and VK Naresh manage to make a mark within the limited scope given to their characters. sumanth shailendra meets the requirements of a venture capitalist
miss india seems to only sell chai; there are no glimpses of short meals to accompany the cup. feels incomplete, just like the movie.
(miss india airs on netflix)
