A main driver of the fun is the band of incredibly admirable characters that make up the village. Of course, there are heroes and villains in the traditional sense of the word. Ahilya Bamroo is lovely as Gowri, a highly intelligent firebrand who refuses to take no for an answer. A patron of the environment, she clings to the last standing tree in her village as her life depends on it. Standing in her way is Renu (Shalini Kondepudi), the daughter of a mining overlord, who doesn’t mind razing down trees and feelings if that means she can make a quick buck. In the middle of this is Ayaan, who is sort of a placeholder for the audience in the film, an outsider navigating his way through Kuberapuram, one character at a time.
The endless supply of secondary characters — a Singeetam stamp that any fan of his cinema might instantly recognise — provide ample mirth. A quack of a doctor whose first solution to the ‘singing flu’ in the village is a three-day dose of fever medicine, a man who is physically repulsed by music, and a local barber who side-quests hard as a broadcaster of high-quality gossip. Rao’s characters are inherently funny, and the performances keep things light, without making it seem like a stretch.
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