Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam

Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam (“A Little Love, a Little Hardship”) is a 2009 Telugu romantic comedy written and directed by debutant Kishore Kumar Pardasani, starring Siddharth and Tamannaah, with Prakash Raj, Ramya Krishna, Nassar and Brahmanandam. The songs were the Telugu debut of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, with a background score by Mani Sharma. Released on 5 February 2009, it was a commercial success and won Nandi, CineMAA and Filmfare awards.

What the story is about

Geeta grows up in a village doted on by her father, Subramanyam, and comes to Hyderabad to study, staying with her uncle Gachibowli Diwakar. There she meets Siddhu, a carefree friend of her cousin, and the two fall in love. But Siddhu’s parents, Prakash and Rajyalakshmi, have long been separated, and when he asks for Geeta’s hand, her father sets a condition: he will agree only if Siddhu’s parents are together again. So the young couple set out to reunite them.

Cast and crew

• Siddharth as Siddharth “Siddhu” Verma
• Tamannaah as Geeta
• Prakash Raj as Prakash Verma and Ramya Krishna as Rajyalakshmi, Siddhu’s parents
• Nassar as Subramanyam, Geeta’s father, and Sudha as her mother
• Brahmanandam as Gachibowli Diwakar and Hema as his wife
• Venu Madhav as Bangarraju

Director: Kishore Kumar Pardasani. Production: Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions. Songs: Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, with lyrics by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri, Chandrabose and Ramajogayya Sastry. Background score: Mani Sharma. Runtime: 165 minutes.

Music

The eight-song album, only the trio’s second outside Hindi after the Tamil Aalavandhan, was very well received. The Bangalore Mirror praised its “intelligently localized sound”, and Sheetal Tiwari of BollySpice gave it four stars, predicting the trio might “make a habit of directing Telugu musicals”. It won two Mirchi Music Awards critics’ prizes, for the album and for the song “Anandama”.

Reviews and box office

Radhika Rajamani of Rediff called it a “perfect entertainer” and credited the debutant director with “a script which is entertaining yet meaningful”. Idlebrain gave it three out of five, liking the songs and the emotions of the second half but not the slow narration. T2BLive‘s list of 2009’s top Telugu earners puts its distributors’ share at ₹18 crore.

Awards

Ramya Krishna won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress (Telugu). The Nandi Awards went to the film (the Akkineni Award for best home-viewing feature film), to Hema as Best Female Comedian and to Vikram Sirikonda and Deepak Raj for the screenplay. At the CineMAA Awards, Brahmanandam was Best Comedian and Kishore Kumar Best Debut Director. The film was remade in Bengali as Romeo (2011).

Where to watch Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam

Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam is listed on Aha (checked against the platform’s own listing). Availability can vary by region and subscription.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam and the reviews and reports it cites, linked above; Aha’s listing; our own cast and crew records.