Pitta Kathalu

Pitta Kathalu (transl. Short stories) is a 2021 Indian Telugu-language anthology drama film consisting of four short film segments, directed by Nag Ashwin, B. V. Nandini Reddy, Tharun Bhascker and Sankalp Reddy.^[1][2] The film features an ensemble cast of Amala Paul, Ashwin Kakumanu, Eesha Rebba, Jagapati Babu, Satyadev, Lakshmi Manchu, Ashima Narwal, Saanve Megghana, Sanjith Hegde and Shruti Haasan, amongst others.^[1] The film was produced by RSVP Movies and Flying Unicorn Entertainment.^[3][4] The film premiered on Netflix on 19 February 2021.^[5][6] It is Netflix's first Telugu original film.^[1]

Pitta Kathalu
Official release poster
Directed by	Nag Ashwin B.V. Nandini Reddy Tharun Bhascker Sankalp Reddy
Written by	Tharun Bhascker Radhika Anand Nag Ashwin Nanda Kishore Emani
Produced by	Ronnie Screwvala Ashi Dua
Starring	Shruti Haasan Satyadev Eesha Rebba Amala Paul Lakshmi Manchu Jagapathi Babu Ashima Narwal
Cinematography	Naveen Yadav Niketh Bommireddy Richard Prasad
Edited by	Abhinav Reddy Danda Kiran Ganti Junaid Siddiqui Upendra Varma
Music by	Songs: Vivek Sagar Mickey J. Meyer Sanjith Hegde–Soorya Praveen Prashanth R Vihari Score: Smaran
Production companies	RSVP Movies Flying Unicorn Entertainment
Distributed by	Netflix
Release date	19 February 2021 (2021-02-19)
Running time	150 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Segments

Segment	Director	Writer	Music
Ramula	Tharun Bhascker	Tharun Bhascker	Vivek Sagar
Meera	B. V. Nandini Reddy	Radhika Anand	Mickey J. Meyer
xLife	Nag Ashwin	Nag Ashwin	Sanjith Hegde, Soorya Praveen
Pinky	Sankalp Reddy	Nanda Kishore Emani	Prashanth R.Vihari

Plot

Ramula

"Ramula" is the narrative of a modest community Telangana young lady named Ramula (Saanve Megghana) and her fit-in vain boyfriend, Ram chander (Abhay Bethiganti). Once, a politician named Swaroopa Akka (Manchu Lakshmi) witnesses Ramula trying to commit Suicide by falling from a bridge and she asks her what happened. To which she says that Ram chander broke up with her. Swaroopa Akka gives a plan that is to seduce him and get their sex tapes with him because he might be manipulating her that she decides to ruin him if he is just using her. After having sex, Ram goes to his parents and expresses his love for Ramula and says that he will marry Ramula. After telling this to Ramula, She gets happy and Ram decides to propose her in front of her family. Ramula calls Swaroopa Akka and tells her everything, but she decides to ruin them both for her career by exposing their sex tapes in a live news program which her family and everyone sees. A traumatized Ramula jumps from her terrace and dies in front of Ram chander who brought Music band members to propose her. The story ends with Ram chander shouting Ramula's name in tears.

Meera

This story is about a youthful spouse named Meera (Amala Paul), who goes through a difficult stretch because of her dubious and insane husband Vishwa Mohan (Jagapathi Babu). Meera is pregnant and she has 2 kids. Meera cheats on him with a guy named Shiva to which Vishwa knows it. On their 10th anniversary Celebration, Vishwa's friend Abbas gives them a beautiful portrait of girl turning behind. Everybody says that it looks like Meera and that makes Vishwa furious that he slaps Abbas, making everyone to leave. The Next day, He takes Meera to the hospital for checking if the father of the unborn foetus is Shiva's or Vishwa's, but one of Vishwa's friend and his wife finds about the truth. It is revealed that Meera was raped multiple times by Vishwa. After a while, Vishwa imagines that Abbas and Meera having sex, which makes him go to Abbas's house. Vishwa thrashes Abbas and finds that he was having sex with a guy and that reveals that Abbas is gay. Vishwa is then arrested for 7 years. After few days, It is revealed that Shiva was an imaginary person. She just created a character in order to provoke Vishwa and wait for the time to be free. At the end, Meera smiles that she got her freedom.

xLife

xLife is the story of Vik (Sanjith Hegde), a youngster who assumes control over the world with his advanced innovation called X-Life, which has billions of clients. One day his company celebrates 4 Billion users of X-Life but it gets hacked by Neel, Vik's College friend. When Neel warns Vik to stop X-Life, he uses a paralytic device on Neel's forehead that paralyses him and drowns him into his fears, after Freezing Neel, he sees Divya, a kitchen staff who was caught stealing food. He leaves her with a warning but sends her a great food . Few days later, he uses her as a model for increasing his friends' biscuits company. He fires Divya and hires her again as a personal assistant. He invites her for dinner through virtual reality. But she denies and says that she knows a better place to have food. It is a terrace that she mentioned and the dinner was a piece of loaf. She said that she wanted the world not to be hungry and wanted to know the value of food . Next day, Vikram finds her missing, when he takes a look in his CCTV footage, it was found that his assistant Kranthi was trying to harass her. Seeing this, Vikram finds Divya trying to jump off the building but vik saves her and he calms her down. As vik proposes her,Divya calms herself and they kiss. After few moments, Vikram takes her to X-Life Heart room . When he was showing the heart, Divya used the paralytic device on him . It is revealed that Divya and Neel together planned to shut down X-Life and they wanted everyone to enjoy the world but not to be stuck and addicted to a virtual world that is controlled and she planned on the fight with Kranti. She then removes the batteries of the heart and she says that she knew Vik's fear was his dad because Vik witnessed a domestic abuse of his mom. So she made him remind of those days. After few seconds. X-Life Shuts down . Everybody removes their console and sees the beautiful world around them.

Pinky

Pinky is about an upcoming writer Vivek (Satyadev), who is in a committed relationship but has an unsanctioned romance with his ex-wife Pinky (Eesha Rebba)

Cast

Ramula	Meera	xLife	Pinky
Abhay Bethiganti as Ram Chander Saanve Megghana as Ramula Lakshmi Manchu as Swaroopakka Anjaiah Milkuri as Kishan, Ramula's brother Venkat Kanaka as Bal Reddy, a party worker Sai Mahesh as Kiran, a party worker Shivani Mahi as Swathi Muralidhar Goud	Jagapathi Babu as Vishwa Mohan Amala Paul as Meera Ashwin Kakumanu as Shiva Pragathi as CI Vamsee Chaganti as Abbas Kireeti Damaraju as Vivek Kunak Kaushik as Sandeep Sunaina as Shobha	Shruti Haasan as Divya Sanjith Hegde as Vik Sangeeth Sobhan as Neel Uko as General Koko Anish Kuruvilla as Broski Thanmayi as Heera Dayanand Reddy as Kranthi	Eesha Rebba as Priyanka "Pinky" Satyadev as Vivek Srinivas Avasarala as Harsha Ashima Narwal as Indu

Reception

Hemanth Kumar of Firstpost wrote that "On the whole, Pitta Kathalu is a mixed bag and not all short stories find their rhythm and clarity of thought to say what they want to. But it’s also a step in the right direction in many ways. Pitta Kathalu exists in a Telugu cinematic universe and in this world, women are largely in control of their own lives and more than anything, they hate to be mansplained. Thank God, they aren’t treated like deities with pure thoughts and leading pious lives. Their shades of grey is what adds colour to Pitta Kathalu." and gave 3 out of 5 stars.^[7] Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times of India wrote about the film that "While one has to search hard to find imperfection in Tharun’s rural tale, Nandini, Nag Ashwin and Sankalp’s urban stories in Pitta Kathalu are not without flaws. Predictability haunts all the stories to a certain extent, but what matters is how the directors manage to pull it off. It is definitely refreshing to see Telugu cinema tell tales of real, damaged relationships (and women) on screen without judgement. Give this one a try this weekend!"^[8] Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote "Two films work. Two don’t. And the standout is Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam’s ‘Ramula’, which takes big risks with form."^[9]