A suspense thriller with sudden twists

Harsha P Reddy, an NRI, who has penchant to make films made his debut as a producer with a film 'Andaru Dongale'. However, that film failed to attract the audiences and proved a dud commercially. True to the saying that a long-time patient is better than a doctor, Harsha Reddy learnt about film-making and other loopholes as a producer. He prepared a story which is a suspense thriller with an inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock. Moreover, the success of films like Mantra and Anasuya which were based on suspense prompted him to choose the subject. At the same time, such films do not need star artistes and no big sets and could be wrapped up with a meagre budget. All these factors prompted. Hence Harsha Reddy had decided to direct a film on his own.

A serial murders take place in the city and it appears that those murders are being perpetrated by a psycho. The police appoint an officer (Sivaji) to investigate the mystery. On the other hand, there is a girl Shweta (Shweta Bharadwaj) who works in a real estate company. Once her boss gives her Rs 2 crore cash and asks her to give it to their accountant. Suddenly, she disappears with the money. In fact, Shweta and her boyfriend take the money and stay in a bungalow called Ananda Nilayam on the outskirts of the city. Unexpectedly, he dies under mysterious circumstances. Later, a group of bachelors take the bungalow for rent. Though they too face some embarrassing situation, they get adjusted to it with the cooperation from the house owner Harsha (Harshavardhan). Among the bachelors, there are two friends who always quarrel with each other.

One day one of their friends visit the house and he pretends that he was the psycho killer. He shoots one of the bachelors. The remaining three bachelors get frightened. Mysteriously another bachelor also gets killed. A private detective who visit the place for investigation also gets killed. As the situation turns tense, the two friends who regularly quarrel with each other decide to sacrifice their lives for the other and they start moving very closely. At this juncture, the person who was shot at in the beginning comes out saying that he and his friend enacted a drama to prevent their regular quarrels and make them good friends. Then Sivaji gets a call from his higher ups as he was the police officer who came there to investigate the serial murders. Soon he finds that all the friends were murdered. Surprisingly, he finds two highly decomposed bodies in the house and learns that the serial murders were being perpetrated by Harsha. In the investigation, the police find that Harsha (Harshavardhan) was a psycho and he turned a split personality who behaves like his mother, brother and himself and killing people as he lost his heart to Shweta and anyone who eyed her or her belongings get killed by Harsha. The film ends with the unravelling of the mystery.

PERFORMANCE:

Sivaji's attire, make-up and body language were quite different from routine and he gave an extra-ordinary performance all through the movie. As a psycho killer and as a police officer, he maintained good variation in performance. Definitely it is a different from routine role for Sivaji. Shweta Bharadwaj of 'Mission Istambul'-fame is being introduced to the Tollywood through this movie. She is okay in her role as she had nothing much to perform. Kausha appears in a special song in the beginning. All the other artistes including Vijay, Satyam Rajesh, Srinivasa Reddy, Harshavardhan did justice to their respective roles. Raghubabu and Melkote appeared like a flash in a couple of scenes.

TECHNICAL:

Though a novice Harsha Reddy maintained very good suspense all through the film. For those who were in the habit of watching suspense thrillers could definitely enjoy the film. 'Mantra' Anand's music was another highlight. No doubt, the music elevated the tempo in certain scenes. Camera by Vasu is another plus for the flick as he was able to capture the scenes that were planned by the director exactly. The entire film was shot in a bungalow set and hence the production values proved adequate.

ANALYSIS:

Though the film is okay as a thriller, the comedy is completely missing. Several scenes appeared stretched beyond the limits in order to maintain the thriller tempo. Another drawback in the film is the sudden twists and changes. The normal and average Telugu audiences could not easily grasp the sudden turn of events. There were several such sudden change of events like the boyfriend of Shweta takes away the cash with him and gets killed. Sivaji fires his revolver and the private detective dies. Even as Sivaji trying to say that it was all drama, Satyam Rajesh gets killed. Such sudden change of events could not be digested by common man, though all the secrets were revealed in the climax. The absence of comedy and unexpected twists in the subject proved the film costly.

Cast: Sivaji, Swetha Bharadwaj, Harshavardhan, Vijay, Satyam Rajesh, Srinivasa Reddy, Raghubabu, Giribabu, Melkote, Kausha and others.

Credits: Cinematography – Vasu, Editing – Shankar, Music – 'Mantra' Anand, Art – Narayana Reddy, Story, screenplay, direction and production – Harsha P Reddy.

Banner: Geo Media Arts