Pelli SandaD

Pelli SandaD (“Wedding Celebration”) is a 2021 Telugu musical romantic comedy directed by debutant Gowri Ronanki under the supervision of K. Raghavendra Rao, a spiritual sequel to his 1996 film Pelli Sandadi. Roshan Meka, son of the original’s star Srikanth, leads with Sreeleela in her Telugu debut, alongside Shivani Rajashekar and Rajendra Prasad, and Raghavendra Rao himself makes his acting debut. Produced by Madhavi Kovelamudi, Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni, with music by M. M. Keeravani, it was released on 15 October 2021.

What the story is about

Maya, an aspiring filmmaker, wants to make a biopic of Vasishta, a Dronacharya Award-winning coach, and threatens her father with suicide until the reluctant Vasishta agrees to tell his story. In flashback to 1996, Vasishta and Sahasra meet at a wedding and fall in love at first sight. The obstacle is Sahasra’s father, Pattabhi Ramayya, a strict patriarch who is completely against love marriages, and the film is about how Vasishta proves himself worthy of her.

Cast and crew

• Roshan Meka as Vasishta, in a double role
• Sreeleela as Sahasra
• Shivani Rajashekar as Maya and Rajendra Prasad as her father
• K. Raghavendra Rao as the older Vasishta and Deepti Bhatnagar as the older Sahasra
• Prakash Raj as Pattabhi Seetharamayya, Sahasra’s father
• Rao Ramesh as Vasishta’s father
• Posani Krishna Murali and Vennela Kishore

Director: Gowri Ronanki. Producers: Madhavi Kovelamudi, Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni. Music: M. M. Keeravani, lyrics by Chandrabose. Cinematography: Sunil Kumar Nama. Editing: Tammiraju.

Making the film

The sequel was planned in October 2020. Khushi Kapoor was reported as the heroine but never confirmed, and Malavika Nair was signed that October before Sreeleela replaced her in January 2021. Filming finished in July 2021. Keeravani’s songs, released by Aditya Music, included “Premante Enti”, “Bujjulu Bujjulu”, the title track and “Madhura Nagarilo”. The film was first planned for September 2021 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reviews

Thadhagath Pathi of The Times of India gave it two and a half out of five, calling it “strictly watchable fare” with the leads coming into their own but nothing “fresh or remotely logical”. Y Sunita Chowdhary of The Hindu likened the climax to a Manmohan Desai ending and called the film “a costly showreel for Roshan and Sree Leela”. Eenadu liked the songs and lead performances but not the screenplay, and NTV found the story outdated.

Where to watch Pelli SandaD

According to Wikipedia, Pelli SandaD premiered on ZEE5 on 24 June 2022. We have not checked the current ZEE5 listing, so availability in your region may differ.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Pelli SandaD and the reviews it cites, linked above; our own cast and crew records.