‘Summer Holidays’ movie review: Srikar Nayan's Telugu film is a simplistic yet heartfelt ode to rural nostalgia
The Hindu · Srivathsan Nadadhur ·
‘Summer Holidays’ movie review: Srikar Nayan's Telugu film is a heartfelt ode to rural nostalgia, led by child actors Arun Dev and Rohan Roy
It’s 2001. A school-going city boy is taunted by his father to improve his grades each term. Meanwhile, a boy in a village, drowning in debt and doing odd jobs to make ends meet, knows how to live life to the fullest. What if they spend a summer together? The Telugu film Summer Holidays, set in Thotavaripalem in interior Andhra Pradesh, leans into the romanticised notion of villages as repositories of goodwill and nostalgia.
Srikar Nayan’s directorial debut, true to its title, tracks the passage of summertime by the countryside. The film is a feel-good, syrupy coming-of-age saga that pays fond homage to childhood innocence, offering a peek into the urban-rural divide and several social barriers through a friendship between boys dealing with contrasting realities.
Ravuri Venkatesh a.k.a. RV (Arun Dev) has a strict father binding him to his home, clipping his cricketing dreams. The film begins with his curious gaze at a window broken by boys playing cricket in his street. His empathetic mother (Vasuki Anand) offers him some respite with a trip to her hometown (Thotavaripalem) during the summer break.
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