Vijay Devarakonda and Mrunal Thakur come together to do a tropey romance, and they somehow make it watchable. That’s something. The latest addition to Prime’s catalog, Parasuram’s The Family Star, is a decent rom-com with a big dollop of ‘sanskaar’ from the Aloknath’s school of thought. The less we talk about the story making sense, the better.
Spoilers Ahead
What happens in the movie?
Govardhan is the youngest son of his family, and he’s a guy who provides, quite literally. Govardhan’s big Indian family comes from a humble background, and their lifestyle doesn’t offer them much. His elder brother is an alcoholic, who is irresponsible and drunk all the time. His two sisters-in-law and their kids, along with his grandmother, are all dependent on Govardhan. His life is office to home, collecting rations, and barely meeting his own needs. He has no regrets about sacrificing his life for the family, and he’s only too happy to do his best. Govardhan is quite popular among the ladies; one of his colleagues throws herself at him on a daily basis. Govardhan’s interest in women is so low that one might wonder about his sexual preference in some scenes. That changes soon, when a university student, Indhu, comes to Govardhan’s house as a tenant.
How does Indhu change Govardhan?
Indhu’s food orders and warm and friendly nature make her popular among Govardhan’s family. Govardhan resists the change in his family, and he warns everyone to stay away from her. Govardhan is into Indhu, and he tries to win her back after she heard him say foul things about her to the family. Govardhan keeps pestering her into talking to him again. Govardhan’s life starts to take a different turn after a flirty dynamic begins between him and Indhu. He starts spending time outside his home and office; he picks Indhu up from the university and goes on long drives. The fairytale builds up smoothly, but a creditor arrives to shock the family. Govardhan’s alcoholic brother took loans he couldn’t repay, and the creditor asks his wife to pay him a visit if they want to avoid trouble. Govardhan barges into the creditor’s workspace and beats his goons to a pulp to temporarily resolve the issue. He also teaches his nieces and nephews to deal with such people when they pose a threat to the women of the family. Indhu gives Govardhan the money he needs to repay the guy and end the conflict, and soon after, they kiss, thinking their relationship is about to begin.
Why does Govardhan cut ties with Indhu?
Govardhan starts to decorate his whole house to welcome Indhu to the family as his lover. Rangolis, flowers, and jolly kids—everything is prepared to perfection for celebrating Govardhan and Indhu’s new beginning. Govardhan’s world shatters when a man arrives with Indhu’s final thesis to deliver it. The thesis is titled Govardhan: The Man, and it has everything about Govardhan and his family as nothing but subjects of research for Indhu. A furious Govardhan drives to Indhu’s university and humiliates her in front of her friends for using him without consent. Indhu’s research paper hurt his self-respect, and he took a vow to never see her again.
How does Govardhan get rich?
Govardhan is an up-and-coming talented architect, and he was wasting himself in the small cubicles. He remembers getting a job offer from a huge architecture firm and refusing it to stay in Hyderabad with his family. He goes to meet the president of the firm and gets the job he once refused. He asks for two years of salary in advance and promises to give everything he can for the company. He then starts an anti-Indhu campaign on his own. He starts getting all the nice things money can buy and shows off his wealth to Indhu to prove how wrong she was to say he comes from poverty. Govardhan’s vanity does help the family members a bit, and the kids get admission to the best private school, and the women of the house get expensive jewelry. Govardhan’s pride doesn’t stick around for long, and he soon finds out that Indhu is the daughter of the president and the new CEO of the company.
What happens when Indhu and Govardhan go to America?
Govardhan becomes the project head for an assignment in the United States, and Indhu goes with him to oversee the project. Govardhan keeps up with his arrogance even after knowing she’s his boss and creates all sorts of nuisances. He befriends Samarth, whom Indhu appointed to take care of him specifically so that he doesn’t get homesick. Govardhan doesn’t stop defying Indhu and keeps belittling her in every way possible, but that comes to an end when he sees a big chunk of his salary not getting credited. When they were about to fly to America, Govardhan whined about her flying in business class and told the accountant to upgrade his tickets as well. That amount got cut from his salary, and now he can’t figure out how to pay his EMIs and bills back home. Samarth tries to get him into prostitution for a night to make easy money, but Govardhan panics when a group of women surround him. The women want him to come with them, and he is defenseless in the middle of Times Square. Just in time, he notices Indhu passing by, and Indhu saves his dignity by claiming he’s her man and the ladies should leave him alone. Indhu makes sure to pay the rest of his salary, and the bad blood between them starts to die down. Enemies to lovers to enemies—that’s the trope here, if it’s not obvious by now. And what could’ve been a cheap Wattpad novella is shown to us on the screen, but at least the leads are beautiful?
Is Govardhan’s project successful?
Govardhan gets all the creative liberty from Indhu to build a huge Indian society in the middle of the United States. He envisions houses with Indian decor and style and tells the NRIs that it’s a gift to them. Govardhan completes the project, and the President arrives to see the architectural marvel he’s created. In the celebratory party, the president gives credit for the project to his own daughter, and Govardhan didn’t seem to mind it at all. Indhu finds herself falling in love again when she sees Govardhan accepting her, but a wedding changes the equation soon. Indhu overhears Govardhan talking about how she betrayed him and how her punishment should be getting married to a crippled man. Indhu is heartbroken and leaves America without saying anything to him.
Can Govardhan save Indhu?
Govardhan comes back to India and gets a cheque for ten crores from the President in advance for his next project. Govardhan visits the President to thank him, and that’s when he gets to know why Indhu wrote the thesis on him. Indhu deeply respected his sacrifices for the family, and she fell in love with him. Indhu praised Govardhan and his wisdom at her graduation speech and made the whole crowd give a standing ovation for “The Man.” Govardhan regrets his behavior after knowing the truth, but it might be too late now. A guy Govardhan beat up in America for shooting a video of Indhu without consent turns out to be the heir of an Indian minister. After Govardhan’s bashing, the guy got into an accident and now suffers from paralysis. The minister forcefully took Indhu to marry his son so that she could tend to him her entire life.
Govardhan takes his grandmother and reaches the minister’s house, where the family prepares for the wedding. He starts distributing copies of the thesis Indhu wrote and asks his grandmother to read it out loud. The goons start to pour in, and Govardhan at least takes down a couple hundred of them. Govardhan even convinces the minister that he understands the pain one has to bear when someone close is hurt, but there’s nothing anybody can do to undo that. He offers to take care of the guy as his own brother and insists the bloodshed must stop. Indhu then takes Govardhan to meet the paralyzed man and says that he got his wish fulfilled. But Govardhan reminds her that she promised him that she’d always take care of him. The grandmother plays cupid, and she pushes Govardhan to embrace Indhu. The Family Star ends with a poorly choreographed wedding dance number, but a happy rom-com ending nonetheless.
