Yet another suspense thriller with Sivaji

Bollywood is known for bringing out good suspense, thriller and horror stories. However, the Tollywood too made inroads into it, and films like ‘Mantra’, ‘Anasuya’ which are basically suspense thriller subjects were proved big hits in recent times. With the success of ‘Mantra’, its producer Chukka Kalyanram, looked for yet another suspense thriller subject and okayed Yandamuri Virendranath’s story. The film made with a relatively low budget and hence, he chose Sivaji as hero again, as he is affordable and adequate to the story. At the same time, the megaphone was handed over to a debutant Machakanti Ramakrishna, a novice. However, he handled the story by penning screenplay for himself.

Vamsi (Sivaji) plans to buy a big bungalow in a remote place and had some ideas on his prospective house. He approaches Kanchu Kanakayya @ KK (Dr Sivaprasad), a real estate businessman. KK shows him a building which was good in all respects with a sea view in the rear side of the building. Vamsi likes the building and stays back there, asking his driver to drop KK at his place. To pass time, Vamsi goes to a nearby village jatara and enjoys the song by a dancer called Maya (Shraddha Das). While returning, Maya follows him to the bungalow, as some villager teases her. In the bungalow, Vamsi and Maya sit near a fireplace which is adjacent to a library.

Vamsi gets attracted towards a book, ‘Diary 2002’ and starts reading it. He could visualize the incidents penned in the diary. As per the diary, the earlier owner of the house, Albert (Sridhara Rao) had a love marriage and his wife Mona (Mousami Udeshi) dies accidentally in his hands. However, Albert fears that Mona turned a devil and claimed the life of his secretary. He reads many books and meets psychiatrists and everyone rule out the presence of devils and it is nothing but hallucination. But Albert feels the presence of Mona. The diary ends with a sentence that the reader could treat him as dead if the diary stopped abruptly. Incidentally, there is no more writing in the book. Meanwhile, Vamsi finds the portrait of Maya in one of the rooms while reading the diary and believes that Maya is none other than a devil.

In order to save himself Vamsi carries a sharp knife and accidentally stabs Maya and kills her. He also loses his consciousness out of fear. The police swing into action and start investigation. During their investigation, the police find that the earlier owner is not Albert but one Sastry who is presently staying in Kerala. The police officer (Harshavardhan) takes Vamsi to Kerala and meets Sastry (Yandamuri), who laughs at them saying that it was a novel written by him and it did not happen earlier and what all Vamsi visualized is nothing but illusion. However, the killing and death of Maya had really happened. This incident lands Vamsi into jail.

PERFORMANCE:

The film basically has two pairs of hero and heroines. While Sivaji and Shraddha Das paired up as one couple, another pair is Sridhara Rao and Mousami Udeshi. Sivaji, the main hero is adequate and such roles is very common for him. Earlier too, Sivaji played such roles in a couple of films. Sivaji maintained good body language and his attire, with a very casual look, gives the impression that it was Sivaji who could do justice to such roles. Shraddha Das, who has the male looks in some angles is okay. Especially, the scenes where she portrays the horror looks were perfectly caught by the camera. Siradhara Rao and Mousami Udeshi are adequate in their roles. Harshavardhan, Dr Siva Prasad did justice to their respective roles.

TECHNICAL:

Though a debutant, Radhakrishna explained all the thoughts exactly what was in his mind on the celluloid. Mantra Anand’s background score is another highlight of the film. There are very few dialogues in the film as the entire film is nothing but a narration from a book. Cinematography by Srinivasa Reddy is adequate and art by Vishaal is impressive. Gauthamraju once again proved his seniority and made the film crisp.

ANALYSIS:

Though the script, screenplay and direction by Ramakrishna are okay, there are few lapses which should have been avoided had he concentrated more on the film. The subject ‘hallucinations’ is not new to the Telugu audiences. Director Ramakrishna narrated the entire story by visualisation. The only drawback of the film is that it has no mass elements, but the film would definitely attract the youth and class audiences. The film may run with above average rating because of the nice movement of subject and in maintaining the suspense thriller element with perfect and gripping screenplay.

Cast: Sivaji, Shraddha Das, Sridhar Rao, Mousami Udeshi, Dr Sivaprasad, Jeeva, Srinivas, Harshavardhan, Kamal, Chinnikrishna and others

Credits: Story – Yandamuri Virendranath, Dialogues – Arun, Cinematography – V. Srinivasa Reddy, Editing – Gauthamraju, Music – Mantra Anand, Art – Vishaal, Action – Nandu, Presents – Meghashyam Bokam, Producer – Chukka Kalyanram, Dialogues and direction – Machakanti Ramakrishna.

Banner: Gen Next Movies and Great Ocean Entertainments

Release Date: May 29 2009