Telugu, Dilruba disco romantic action drama was released in the theaters on 14 Mar, 2025. Directed by Viswa Karun, the film has Kiran Abbavaram in crucial stance along with Rukshar Dhillon and Kathy Davision. It explores the making of love and self, tumultuous nature of human relationships.
Young man Siddharth "Siddhu" Reddy (Kiran Abbavaram) from New York relocates to Mangalore to pursue his engineering studies after breaking up with his childhood love interest Meghana/Maggie (Kathy Davison). There is something from his culture that he believes; his unwillingness to use the words sorry and thank you as he feels sorry for it usage (being a cheap handshake). That's where his worldview comes from based on experiences he's had in the past before things even begin shaping him.
Siddhu (Angular Dhillon) meets Anjali in Mangalore, another student
Siddhu's on a suicide mission, but this time he actually saves the girl (Anjali) from something way worse than anything Vicky could insult him with. They find each other and Anjali starts to like Siddhu for what on surface level looks like the instance act of bravery. Despite this though, Siddhu is too cynical to take another relationship from his past with him.
The following is how the story evolves where Maggie returns to Mangalore from the gratuities to mend fences and also help siddhu break his emotional walls. Even with that his concern for the innocents is deeply wedded and antagonistic behavior by non-alien activities toward Siddhu contributes to further complications.
It weaves through Siddhu's battle within, between him and Anjali (no pun intended), his battle with compassion facing personal humiities, crucibles of redemption love and forgiving.
Critics Initially Mixed for Dilruba upon its Initial Release Kiran Abbavaram has done an excellent job in begging Siddhu — she is so alive and real, not just for us to understand his inner turmoil or depth as a human it almost forced tears.
Several utters such as Rukshar Dhillon did a breezy job as Anjali, appreciated for her character wit and chemistry with Abbavaram. There were however complaints with Kathy Davison as Maggie, some critics felt she overacted at times and just didn't have enough expressiveness or depth to it.
Dispute over narrative structure and dialogue.
The former was seen as interesting enough, with an Oedipal male fulcrum coming to terms with his own philosophies on talking and feeling but did that translate well? The screen play was accused of being at times too energetic/discordant and the editing quickly jumps from romantic material one minute to comedic /action sequences next. Moreover, subplots and characters like that of antagonist, Joker were thoughtlessly added without being meticulous assimilated into main plot.
On the technical side, Viswas Daniel was commended for his cinematography that showed you, the vary settings of the film and Sam C. S. provided enough quality score for musical score but the was mere not something it is going to stick into your head.
Editing (Praveen K. L) panned for not keeping an even developmental pace and destroyed the narrative.
Dilruba wants to be a deep story about love with philosophy and non-stop action in the background. The film demonstrates promising thematic material with heartfelt performances here — Kiran Abbavaram, Rukshar dhillon amongst others — but suffers from a narrative disaster and lack of character development. The intersection of distinct genres and an ambitious attempt to explore deep emotional territories are apparent in execution which does not make for a consistently involving cinematic experience. Dilruba would make for interesting viewing for those wanting to watch a character-led story that explores broader personal ideologies, personal relationship patterns but may leave the others wanting more richly woven narrative.
