''Happy Birthday'' is a 2022 Indian Telugu-language surreal

crime comedy film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

written and directed by Ritesh Rana, and produced by

Mythri Movie Makers Mythri Movie Makers Pvt. Ltd is an Indian film production company established by Naveen Yerneni, Y. Ravi Shankar, and Mohan Cherukuri, in 2015. It mainly produces and distributes Telugu films. Notable films produced by the company include '' ...

and Clap Entertainment. It stars

Lavanya Tripathi Lavanya Tripathi (born 15 December 1990) is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Telugu films along with Tamil films. She made her acting debut with the Hindi television show ''Pyaar Ka Bandhan'' (2009) and made her film debut with ''An ...

in a

dual role A dual role (also known as a double role) refers to one actor playing two roles in a single production. Dual roles (or a larger number of roles for an actor) may be deliberately written into a script, or may instead be a choice made during produc ...

along with Naresh Agastya,

Vennela Kishore Bokkala Kishore Kumar (born 19 September 1977), known professionally as Vennela Kishore, is an Indian actor and director who works in Telugu-language films. Known for his comic roles, he was given the moniker "Vennela" after his first feature f ...

, and Satya. Principal photography of the film took place between November 2021 and May 2022 in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

. The film has music composed by

Kaala Bhairava Kaala Bhairava is an Indian playback singer and music director who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has sung songs in Tamil, Hindi and Kannada, in addition to Telugu. He was the composer of the films '' Mathu Vadalara'' and ''Colour Ph ...

. ''Happy Birthday'' was theatrically released on 8 July 2022 and received mixed reviews from critics and audiences.

Premise

Set in a fantasy world,

Union minister The Union Council of Ministers Article 58 of the ''Constitution of India'' is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which is responsible for being the senior decision making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by t ...

Rithwik Sodhi passes a new

gun law Gun laws and policies, collectively referred to as firearms regulation or gun control, regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, and use of small arms by civilians. Laws of some countries may afford civilians a right to ...

in the

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

that liberalizes the manufacturing and sale of fire arms, leading to an increased

gun culture Gun culture refers to the attitudes, feelings, values and behaviour of a society, or any social group, in which guns are used. The term was first coined by Richard Hofstadter in an '' American Heritage'' article critiquing gun violence in the Unite ...

in the country.

Cast

Production

Following his debut directorial venture '' Mathu Vadalara'' (2019), Ritesh Rana was signed for another film under the production of

. Actress

was cast the lead in her first

crime comedy Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

film. Naresh Agastya, Satya,

and

Gundu Sudarshan Gundu Sudarshan (born Surampudi Sudarshan Rao) is an Indian comedian and actor who works in Telugu films. He acted in more than 350 films. He also has stage experience from the age of 10. He entered the film industry with ''Mister Pellam'' in ...

play other roles. In the film, a

union minister The Union Council of Ministers Article 58 of the ''Constitution of India'' is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which is responsible for being the senior decision making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by t ...

(Kishore) proposes a new gun law that aims to liberalize purchase, sale, manufacture and use of fire arms in the country which leads to increase in the

in the country. Tripathi plays a modern girl nicknamed Happy 340. The film began its production in

in November 2021. In December, the film was titled as ''Happy Birthday.'' The shoot was completed by May 2022.

composed the film's music. The film has cinematography by Suresh Sarangam and editing by

Karthika Srinivas Karthika Srinivas R is an Indian film editor who predominantly works in Tollywood films. He is best known for his works in the films '' Swamy Ra Ra'' (2013), '' 1: Nenokkadine'' (2014), ''Karthikeya'' (2014), ''Antariksham 9000 KMPH'' (2018 ...

Music

The music of the film is composed by

. Lyrics are written by Kittu Vissapragada. The first single was released on 4 July 2022.

Release

''Happy Birthday'' was released theatrically on 8 July 2022, advanced by a week from its initial release date of 15 July 2022.

Reception

Neeshitha Nyayapati of ''

The Times Of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Despite its flaws, ''Happy Birthday'' is refreshing and is exactly what TFI needs to shake things up. It might be far from perfect but Ritesh deserves an A+ for effort". Arvind V of '' Pinkvilla'' rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "The satirical tone of the film has a touch of intelligence.The film's genre, on the other hand, looks either superfluous or half-baked". A critic for ''

The Hans India ''The Hans India'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as well as in New Delhi. The newspaper was started on 15 July 2011 and belongs to Hyderabad Media House Ltd., which also own ...

'' rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "''Happy Birthday'' is a different attempt in the comedy genre. But, it fails to provide a cohesive narrative from the start to the end. It ends up boring and scratching our heads".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 21149558 Mythri Movie Makers films Films scored by Kaala Bhairava Films shot in Hyderabad, India 2020s Telugu-language films Indian crime comedy films 2020s crime comedy films Gun violence in popular culture