Varun Naidu (Nagesh Kukunoor) returns to his home in Hyderabad after 12 years of living in America.  When he arrives in Hyderabad, he is very happy to be with his parents, and his childhood friends Sanjeev and Harish.  Soon, though, he finds that he has become a sort of misfit here - things haven't actually changed, he has.  His parents want him to get married during his short stay in India, but he isn't too happy with the traditional arranged marriage.

His father suggests that since his friend Sanjeev is anyway going to choose a bride to marry, why not go along with him to look at some girls?  Varun is reluctant but goes along anyway - and it is here that he meets Ashwini (Rajshri Nair) whom he eventually falls in love with!  But since she doesn't belong to the same caste, the parents are against the marriage.  Will they finally get married inspite of several difficulties?

Hyderabad Blues is the debut of filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor, and was shot in 17 days on a low budget, in of course, Hyderabad.  The movie is a touching, often very funny comedy-drama, where the writer-director-star compares Indian and Western cultures.  The movie has very natural performances and dialogue, and is a unique treat for anyone who likes good entertainment.  When the movie wants to be funny, it does so effortlessly - the (sometimes absolutely hilarious) humour comes from the situations and dialogue, no one purposely acts like a comedian to evoke laughs.  Ultimately, the well-told story and characters are it's strongest assets!

Small technical criticisms - the audio sometimes didn't synchronise with the lip movements - and often it was very obvious that the dialogues had been re-dubbed.  The movie is primarily in English though it has some Hindi and Telugu dialogue.  These are subtitled (subtitles are in white, which sometimes makes them somewhat difficult to read).  The music score sometimes seemed too loud in comparison with the rest of the sound.

But these things don't really detract from the viewer's enjoyment of this movie.  It's a really good example of how a filmmaker can work wonders with a well-written script and interesting characters.  The movie gets high praise from me!

Running Time: 100 minutes | Country: India | Genre: Drama/Comedy