Rating: 2.25/5
Banner: GA2 Pictures
Cast: Kiran Abbavaram, Kashmira Pardeshi, Murali Sharma, Sharat Lohitashva, Amani, L B Sriram, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Praveen, Devi Prasad, Pammi Sai and others
Music: Chaitan Bharadwaj
Cinematographer: Daniel Viswas
Editor: Marthand K Venkatesh
Director: Murali Kishor Abburu
Producer: Bunny Vas
Release date: 18th Feb 2023
Kiran Abbavaram is one of those promising and upcoming young heroes who caught attention with his offbeat movies. This time, he has come with a crime thriller of sorts and whether he is successful or not, let us see.
Story
Set on the backdrop of Tirupathi, Vishnu (Kiran) is a happy-go-lucky youngster working as a librarian and his motto in life is to help others as much as he can. In that process, he meets Rajan (Sharat), a gangster whose plan is to create terror attacks in the country. Vishnu shares his flashback and recalls his life with Sharma (Murali Sharma), Darshana (Kashmira) and how few incidents in his life have changed his life. Why did Vishnu meet Rajan? What are the twists in Vishnu’s life which brought him there? All this forms the rest of the story.
Performances
Kiran Abbavaram has portrayed his role with confidence but he has to work on improving his body language which is rather stiff. Similarly, there are scenes where his face is blank without any expressions. Kashmira is cute and bubbly, she has potential. Murali Sharma is marvelous as usual and his versatility is praiseworthy. Sharat Lohitashva was superb. Amani, LB Sriram, Praveen were wasted. Subhalekha Sudhakar made his presence felt. The others didn’t have much to do.
Crew
The story was written with a nice thought and it had interesting twists and turns but the script was not conceived in the same way. It was written with a bit of disconnect. As a result, the screenplay was also not that tight. The background score was catchy while two songs were worth listening. Dialogues were good at few places and carried depth. Cinematography was the best in the lot, it captured the visuals and few scenes very well. Editing was not upto the mark. Costumes suited the backdrop while the art department did a neat job. Action sequences were adequate. The production values were sensible without much overspending.
Hits
Storyline
Second half
Misses
Inconsistent narration
First half
Logical loopholes
Dubbing issues
Deeper Look
It is good to see a new wave of directors emerging in the Tollywood circuit with fresh ideas. Their ability to come up with interesting stories is good but here’s the thing, a good writer also needs to be a good director and both are two different skills. And if someone is dreaming to be a good director, the story he has written should be converted onto celluloid with the same conviction. This is where eight out of ten directors are failing. The director of this film also falls in the same category. He was smart to choose a sacred backdrop and churn out a crime thriller of sorts but then it was important to lace the story with the right tightness and hook factor. The film takes off rightly but it takes a long time for the actual momentum to set in. The interval bang was promising and there are few elevations in the second half. The climax focuses on connecting the dots but then there was a kind of disarray and it looked as if too many things are happening at the same time. In totality, the film looked fine in bits and pieces but when stitched together, a lot of inconsistency surfaces. Perhaps another hero who is a notch higher than Kiran Abbavaram would have created a stronger impact and would have drawn the attention of the audience in a better way. At the box office, the film might make some decent openings and given the strong backup of the production house, it will get a sizeable weekend collection but success or a hit talk looks very unlikely. Perhaps a patronage of the family audiences might make it an above average venture.
Vox Verdict
Stale ‘Katha’!
