Pushpaka Vimanam

Pushpaka Vimanam is a 2021 Telugu comedy thriller written and directed by Damodara and produced by Govardhan Rao Devarakonda, Vijay Mattapally and Pradeep Errabelly under King of the Hill Entertainment and Tanga Productions. Anand Deverakonda stars with Geeth Saini, Saanve Megghana and Sunil. It released in theatres on 12 November 2021 to mixed reviews. Our record lists a running time of 142 minutes.

What the story is about

Chittilanka Sundar is a newly married schoolteacher who hopes for a quiet, happy life with his wife Meenakshi, until she runs off. Mortified, Sundar is determined to hide it from his neighbours and colleagues while he quietly searches for her, and when his fellow teachers announce they are coming over to meet the newlyweds, he hires an actress, Rekha, to pose as his wife. Keeping up the act with a nosy neighbour and a meddling headmaster is comedy enough, but then a news report on television turns the cover-up into something much more serious, and the film becomes a whodunit.

Cast

• Anand Deverakonda as Chittilanka Sundar
• Geeth Saini as Meenakshi
• Saanve Megghana as Rekha
• Sunil as SI Rangam
• Naresh as the school headmaster
• Harsha Vardhan as Sundar’s neighbour, a budding music director
• Sharanya Pradeep as Meenakshi’s friend
• Kireeti Damaraju as Abhi, Sundar’s friend
• Varsha Bollamma in a cameo

Music

Mark K Robin composed the background score and the song “Chori Chori Dekho Rey”. Ram Miriyala composed “Kalyanam” and “Silakaa”, Sidharth Sadasivuni “Aaha” and “Malli Rava”, and Amit N Dasani “Swamy Ra Ra (Krishna Shabdam)”.

What critics said

Reviews were mixed to positive. Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times of India gave it 3 out of 5: not “the perfect dark comedy it sets out to be”, but worth a watch “if you’re game for a quirky film with a pinch of comedy, spoon-full of twists and a stellar cast”. Ram Venkat Srikar of The New Indian Express (3/5) called it “an enjoyable comedy that doubles up as a whodunit”, and Gabbeta Ranjith Kumar of The Indian Express said Anand Deverakonda’s performance “adds value”. Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu found interesting ideas that a better screenplay might have pulled together: “It’s not a bad film, it isn’t great either.” We have found no reliably sourced box-office figure.

Where to watch Pushpaka Vimanam

Pushpaka Vimanam streams on Aha. The platform’s own listing confirms it, and our record has it streaming from 10 December 2021, four weeks after the theatrical release.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Pushpaka Vimanam and the reviews it cites, linked above; the Aha listing; our own cast and crew records.