Pushpaka Vimanam

Pushpaka Vimanam is a 2021 Indian Telugu-language comedy thriller film written and directed by Damodara and produced by Govardhan Rao Devarakonda, Vijay Mattapally and Pradeep Errabelly under the banners of King of the Hill Entertainment and Tanga Productions. The film stars Anand Devarakonda, Geeth Saini, Saanve Megghana, and Sunil. The film was released on 14 October 2021.

Plot
Chittilanka Sundar is a recently married teacher. After the marriage, he is hopeful of a blissful life with his wife Meenakshi, but his expectations are shattered when she elopes with someone else. Feeling embarrassed, he tries to hide this from his neighbors and colleagues and secretly searches for her. He questions her parents and friends to no avail.

One day, Sundar's colleagues plans to visit his house to greet the newly married couple, so he hires an actor Rekha to pretend to be his wife. They manage to pull it off, although there are some hitches in the form of a noisy neighbor. The headmaster of the school where Sundar works one day sees Rekha smoking with her friends and informs this to him. He also arranges to buy a new HD TV on behalf of the staff so that he can use the opportunity to counsel Rekha.

While browsing channels, Sundar witnesses the news of Meenakshi's death. Feeling shocked and fearing the worst, he goes to the mortuary and identifies the body. He then meets SI Rangam, who primarily suspects Sundar as the culprit. Rangam, in his investigation, finds blood stains in Sundar's house, which are later revealed to be Meenakshi's. Sundar also fails to prove that Meenakshi eloped due to his earlier lies. Rangam suspects Rekha to be Sundar's accomplice. Rangam thrashes Sundar in the guise of interrogation to obtain the truth. During the "interrogation", Sundar reveals the actual reason Meenakshi left him.

During their first night together, Sundar asks Meenakshi about her virginity, angering her. He later apologizes to her but she does not respond to him. Things escalate when he tries to hit Meenakshi after she insulted his father, so Meenakshi leaves to her former boyfriend's house. Her postmortem reveals the date of death to be the 10th of the month, and Sundar manages to provide a partial alibi for the day, prompting the police to release him. Sundar's neighbor, an aspiring musician, tries to console him. He claims that on the day of Meenakshi's death, he has composed his career's best music and was not able to move from his chair.

Rangam interrogates Meenakshi's ex-boyfriend and realizes that she left him after a huge fight. The police then tries to arrest Sundar, but he manages to escape. While on the run, he finds out that Meenakshi stayed with her friend whom he had earlier visited. He rushes over to her house and learns that she planned to return to him on the day of her death. He investigates further and finds that his neighbor tried to assault her and by mistake killed her by pushing her. Rangam takes the credit for solving the case, and the story ends on a positive note with Sundar trying to move on with his life.

Cast

 * Anand Devarakonda as Chittilanka Sundar
 * Geeth Saini as Meenakshi
 * Saanve Megghana as Rekha
 * Sunil as SI Rangam
 * Naresh as School Headmaster
 * Harsha Vardhan as Sundar's neighbour, a budding music director
 * Harsha Chemudu as Meenakshi's ex
 * Vajja Venkata Giridhar as Social teacher
 * Kireeti Damaraju as Abhi, Sundar's friend
 * Varsha Bollamma in a cameo appearance
 * Bhadram as Sai, Pushpak Travels Agent
 * Nivitha as Telugu teacher (TT)

Music
Background score of the film was composed by Mark K Robin. 2 songs ("Kalyanam" and "Silakaa") were composed by Ram Miriyala, 2 songs ("Aaha" and "Malli Rava") were composed by Sidharth Sadasivuni, 1 song ("Swamy Ra Ra (Krishna Shabdam)") was composed by Amit N Dasani and 1 song ("Chori Chori Dekho Rey") was composed by Mark K Robin.

Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics. Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times Of India gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 and wrote "Pushpaka Vimanam is by no means the perfect dark comedy it sets out to be, especially when films in a similar genre have already done better in Telugu. But watch it this weekend if you’re game for a quirky film with a pinch of comedy, spoon-full of twists and a stellar cast to back it all up". Gabbeta Ranjith Kumar of The Indian Express stated "Anand Deverakonda's performance adds value to this part-comedy, part-investigative drama".

The New Indian Express ' Ram Venkat Srikar rated the film 3/5 felt it was an "enjoyable comedy that doubles up as a whodunit." Reviewing the film for The Hindu, Sangeetha Devi Dundoo concluded that "There are all interesting ideas, but the narrative doesn’t bring everything together in an engrossing manner. A better screenplay might have helped make Pushpaka Vimanam a quirky black comedy it intended to be. It’s not a bad film, it isn’t great either."