Mathu Vadalara


Mathu Vadalara is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language comedy thriller film directed by debutant Ritesh Rana. The film features Sri Simha in the lead role and Satya, Naresh Agastya, Athulya Chandra, Brahmaji and Vennela Kishore in supporting roles. The music was composed by Kaala Bhairava. The film was a success at the box office, and received good reviews. The film was so popular extra screens and film times were added in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Plot

Babu is a delivery boy living with his friends Yesu and Abhi in a bachelor's room in Hyderabad. Yesu works in the same office as his and Abhi is an unemployed guy who spends his day binge-watching crime shows on the internet. With a meager salary in hand, Babu is struggling to make ends meet. So he decides to quit the job and go back to his village but is stopped by Yesu. Things take an interesting turn when Yesu reveals that he’s secretly stealing from the job.
He offers to teach Babu the trick so he can finally come out of his financial struggle. Babu is now stuck in a moral dilemma. He’s scared that he might get caught but he badly needs that money. As the plan is sounding foolproof, he decides to give it a try.
The next day, he shows up at work and selects the perfect delivery to carry out his plan. He goes to Mansion Heights, an isolated gated community on the outskirts of the city. In the parking lot, he runs into a girl. When he notices she dropped an envelope, he returns the same to her. He enters the lift and comes across Banerjee, a police constable who came for a passport verification to one of the flats.
After a brief interaction with Ravi and Banerjee in the lift, he reaches the house with a lonely old lady for delivery and tries to trick her by stealing one note from the bunch she pays him. But the old lady keeps looking at him suspiciously. So he sends her away to fetch water and meanwhile, manages to steal a ₹ 500 note. When she returns, she immediately calls his bluff and starts to hit him. In the scuffle that follows, Babu pushes her away and the old lady falls to the ground and hits the back of her head.
After noticing her lying there lifeless, Babu imagines Yesu and Abhi advising him about the situation and decides to cover up the crime by lying her body on bed and making it look like she died in her sleep. But while doing so, he hears a sound from the other room. It is then revealed that the old lady’s granddaughter, Bujji has been at home all along, but with headphones on with loud music. She doesn’t have any idea of what’s been happening and she’s seen casually talking on the phone. Just then the calling bell rings and the Security guard is at the door. Babu notices Bujji going towards the door and runs inside the washroom to hide.
Much to his horror, a security guard comes inside the washroom to check on the shower nozzle as told by Bujji. When Bujji is away, he changes the memory card of a spy camera he himself had planted inside the shower but while doing so, the card falls into the toilet. Babu is relieved that he’s not caught on camera. The security guard leaves the washroom after repairing the shower. Babu takes the camera off the wall and sits tight waiting for his time to escape.
He posts a message on their Whatsapp group explaining the whole situation and asking them to come to Flat 401 immediately. Yesu thinks that he’s pranking him. Meanwhile, Bujji returns with Ravi and a packet of Marijuana. They plan to smoke up in Bujji’s bedroom. Unaware of that, Babu goes to hide under the bed in the same room. In the conversation that follows, it is revealed that the water her grandmother gave Babu was also drugged by Bujji. Drugs start to take a toll on Babu and he falls asleep under the bed in Bujji’s room. Bujji smokes up and falls asleep on the couch in the same room.
Minutes later, Babu finds a blood pool lying around a dead body and horrified, runs down to find Yesu. Babu and Yesu go back to their room where Babu freaks out at Yesu for showing him a stupid idea. Abhi, meanwhile, finds out about the situation and makes a plan to cleverly escape. They secretly enter the apartment to find the dead body but finds the old lady alive, and that the girl they met wasn't Tejaswi. Then, they find out that the dead body is in 501. They enter 501 and find out that the dead body is the constable who came for the passport verification. They put back the money bag, but then Babu insists on finding out how the constable died. They discover a secret door and find a drug lab.
Inside the lab, they find the fake Tejaswi unconscious, and Babu suddenly remembers that 501 is Ravi's flat, but finds Ravi dead. Babu and Yesu find the girl stabbing Abhi, so they assault her, tie her up, and interrogate her. She reveals that she is Myrah, a drug dealer. One day, she met Ravi and hired him to cook up drug for her. Then, she started to hate him for turning in late for a big drug deal. He reveals he's working on a new drug and both of them try it out. Myrah gets high and they hear somebody at their door. Ravi receives the door and finds out the constable approaching him for signing as a witness for the neighbour flat. Even though Ravi resists, the constable enters anyway. Meanwhile, Myrah hides. As the constable asks Ravi questions, he notices cocaine below his nose and hears Myrah singing, making him suspicious. He finds the drug lab and Myrah eventually stabs him in the neck, killing Banerjeee. Back in the present, Myrah attempts to bribe Babu, but Babu, making everyone believe he's destroying the drugs, hits Abhi. He then explains that Abhi was also behind it. Abhi then explains that cooking the drugs was his job and Ravi sold them. Later that day, Abhi comes and sees the dead man in the living room and knocks out Myrah, thinking she was a stranger as they didn't know each other.Later Ravi tells Abhi that she is their dealer.Meanwhile he gets the Whatsapp text and frames Babu, who was unconscious due to the druged water, for killing the police constable. Then, he kills Ravi, fearing for his life. Later, he finds out about the money and attempts take it along with the drugs and run away but finds Babu gone. After learning of this, enraged Babu tries to destroy the drugs, which ensues a big fight between them. While Babu tries to kill him, the drug explodes making everyone high. Yesu dreams of being Superman, Myrah becomes psychologically affected, whereas Babu dreams of fighting Abhi and defeating him.
4 weeks later, Babu and Yesu were being interrogated by a detective who tells them that both, Abhi and Myrah are affected and doctors don't know their chance of recovery. Then, he asks him where the money is, and Yesu remembers that it's on the attic of their house. In pre-roll credits, Babu and Yesu get half the money, and the detective got the rest. But just then, PM Narendra Modi declares 500 rupee notes and 1000 rupee notes are illegal shocking the detective because his money was all bundles of 500 rupees.

Cast

The songs were composed by Kaala Bhairava.
The Times of India gave the film a rating of three out of five stars and stated that the film is a "A perfect thriller which makes audience glued to their seats and also spills some laughs". The Hindu wrote that "Mathu Vadalara isn’t a very crafty thriller, which it could have been with some more effort. But it’s definitely a step in that direction by a new team that’s brimming with ideas".