EVARU REVIEW - An engrossing crime thriller with a complex web of twists

STORY PREMISE
Sameera Maha(Regina), a rich businessman’s wife, is accused of killing a police officer Ashok Krishna(Naveen Chandra), who claims that she had to kill him in self defense as he raped her. And as the case is against a police officer, to save their image from public, the whole police force is hell bent to disprove the allegations of rape on the police officer. To defend the case on their behalf the police get an powerful lawyer who doesn’t hesitate, even to produce fake evidences, if that helps in winning the case. Amidst all these mounting anti forces against her, Sameera has only one option, as her lawyer suggests - a corrupt police officer Vikram Vasudev. As stated by Sameera’s lawyer, Vikram Vasudev would do any thing for money, he is an expert in producing fake evidences.

Whether or not Vikram Vasudev succeeds in steering the case away to save Sameera from the impending anti forces or succumbs to the pressure from his higher authority, forms the rest of the story.

SCREENPLAY & DIRECTION
The whole of the narrative’s strength lies purely in the screenplay. The brilliance of the screenplay is evident in the way it takes, what can be called an usual kind, of a homicidal criminal case and presents it in a complex web of twists. It keeps you on the edge till the very last moment frequently throwing jaw-dropping revelations at us. It doesn’t seem like a debut director’s movie at all. Director Venkat Ramji did a commending job; be it in accurately judging the performances of actors or in designing the overall narrative build, he handled them deftly. Shown a promise of a seasoned director. 


PERFORMANCE
Sesh and Regina ably shoulder this complicated narrative with their earnest performances. The cold stares between them leave us guessing on what’s going on in their minds, what are they going to throw at us next. They  succeeded in making the double-edged dialogues work pretty well, which is not an easy task. Murali Sharma is at his usual best and, Naveen Chandra’s performance looks honest. All the other supporting cast did well too.

OTHER DEPARTMENTS 
The background score competes with the intricate screenplay, in achieving a pulsating effect of the narrative. It pushes the revealing moments to a whole new level; in the process, enabling the narrative to be a commercially viable.
The background score, the cinematography and the editing work in tandem to get us deep into psych of the characters and leave us off-guard at every opportunity they are provided. Kudos to the whole technical team.


OVERALL IMPACT
After experiencing the movie - Evaru, you can’t help but appreciate how intelligently the narrative is woven, with brilliant twists catching us off-guard at regular intervals, and at the same time not losing the focus on the emotional core of the story. It is an uncompromising story telling, unusual to Telugu Cinema - with no songs, no cheesy dialogues, no fights, and above all a very crisp run time, less than 2 hours.


RATING: 3.75/5


CAST: Adivi Sesh, Regina Cassandra, Naveen Chandra, Murali Sharma, Pavithra Lokesh, Raja Ravindra

DIRECTOR: Venkat Ramji

WRITERS: Venkat Ramji, Abburi Ravi

PRODUCERS: Kavin Anne, Krishnakanth Kamineni, Param V Potluri, Pearl V Potluri

PRODUCTION BANNER: PVP Cinema

MUSIC: Sricharan Pakala

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vamsi Patchipulusu

EDITING: Garry Bh

ART: Kolla Avinash

COSTUMES: Jahnavi Ellore, Sura Reddy


Thanks for the visit.
Maheshnandu

Manmadhudu-2 - My Theory - A Pseudo Review

A few minutes into the narrative, there is this odd feeling that creeps in, that this movie is not going to be the one that I intended to watch. I came down here to watch the movie because I thought it is going to have those light hearted fun moments with a likable lead character with scenes that doesn’t take themselves too seriously.

It made me feel, a little uncomfortable to see some adult comedy and a bit of realism in the characters and scenes. Why? I am not new to see any adult comedy. And I am a big fan of many films, solely for the realism they try to portray. Then why did I get such negative feeling while watching this movie?

I tried to think over it a bit to decode the real cause. Then, I must be lucky, to have found the root cause for such a half-hearted liking towards a well made movie with the name Manmadhudu-2.   
You see this happens to be the sequel of early 2000s hit movie Manmadhudu which gained a cult following over years. Each and every scene and dialogue in that movie keep resonating in our minds in many occasions in our daily life. The movie has gained that much connect with the audience.

So, my conclusion is, the real reason for the discomfort I felt while watching the adult comedy and realism in the movie, is because of the name of the movie “Manmadhudu 2”. All the time my mind kept reminding me that Manmadhudu was not like this. It was a clean entertainer and was way more fun to watch. My mind couldn’t stop comparing every aspect in this film to that of “Manmadhudu”. So the movie obviously ended up as not reaching my expectations. Hence the dislikability.

What if this movie was given a different name altogether? There wouldn’t have been any comparisons. It could have saved itself from certain kind of expectations. Everyone would have surprised to see Nag in a totally different avatar. And Rahul, the director, would have been appreciated for his efforts to present Nag in new way and for pulling off Nag’s character so authentically, considering his age factor.

If not for the name this film would have stood as one of the fun-to-watch movies in my list of Nag’s movies.

My Rating: 2.75/5

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Regards,
Maheshnandu

Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya review - Innovative investigative fun ride thriller

Screenplay by Swaroop RSJ and Naveen Polishetty, and directed by Swaroop RSJ, the story is about a private detective who is passionate in investigating crime, and is looking to make it big in crime investigation. He is smart and intelligent though he looks silly on the outset. While he carry out petty investigations for living, the real challenge for him arises when he stumbles upon a case where a bereaved father is looking for justice for his raped and murdered daughter, which is somehow being ignored by police. But our detective sees something fishy here and suspects that this murder is somehow linked to the unidentified dead bodies that are frequently found at the railway track. Whether and how our detective succeeds in unearthing the secrets behind the happenings forms the rest of the story.

The unpredictable nature of screenplay keeps us hooked till the end. The maze of twists that are worked out to keep the audience guessing, shows the efforts that were put into the writing.
The lead character Naveen’s humorous portrayal of the detective character keeps us entertained throughout, which otherwise could have been a serious story. Naveen’s histrionics are spot on in making us erupt into laughter. He is a talent to look out for in future.

When it comes to the writing, there are certain aspects where the motives of police to help the detective in the investigation are not clearly established. Many a times, things look quite easy for our protagonist to tread through.

Though the female lead character did justice to her given role, her character has nothing much to do except to blindly follow our detective in his investigation. A proper reasoning is missing as to why she ended up working as an assistant to out detective. Why would she risk her life in such lethal crime investigations. Though it could be some kind of cinematic liberty a simple reasoning for her being there could have added lot of depth to her character.

The director has succeeded in extracting believable performances from all the actors. Though a debutant in direction, and given the subject is not a run of the mill one, the director has pulled it off with aplomb, considering the difficulty in convincingly getting the story from paper to the screen. The director has succeeded with flying colours.

The background music by Mark K Robin is pretty good. It takes the edgy episodes in the film to another level. The cinematography by Sunny Kurapati ably supports the thriller narrative. As in one of the scenes the protagonist explains that the dull moody lighting helps him think more deeply in investigation, the moodily lit cinematography keeps us engrossed in the subject and helps in making this an engaging ride.

Finally, it has been a while we witnessed such a subject in Telugu. Its refreshing. If you can get along with the proceedings keeping this knit picking brain aside from trying to find the ignorable mistakes, you can actually enjoy this comedy laced investigation thriller that is racy, funny and engaging and that has its heart in place.

Rating: 3.25/5