It's not about erotica!
'Grey' is one of the Tollywood film releases of the week. Directed by Raj Madiraju, this is the first black-and-white to come out in Telugu in decades. Although the choice doesn't make much aesthetic or metaphorical sense, somehow the director went ahead with it. What is 'Grey' about? How is the movie? Is it worth a watch? We answer in this review.
Plot:
The film begins with the hint that its story revolves around the mysterious death of a valued scientist. Sudarshan Reddy (Pratap Pothen), an accomplished nuclear scientist, has been shot dead. Is it a murder? Or, did he die by suicide? Unanswered questions remain.
The sole individual who may have an answer is Aarushi Sharma (Urvashi Rai), the deceased person's young wife. The husband-wife duo has an age gap of 20 years. Is that all? Ali Reza plays a cop who tries to deep-dive into Aarushi's past after he suspects that she might have got her husband killed.
Thrown into the mix is a super-intelligent doctor named Raghu (Arvind Krishna), foreign jaunts, a hard disk worth 50 million dollars, and more.
Performances:
By casting veteran artist Pratap Pothen and 25-something Urvashi Rai as a married couple, the film takes a certain degree of risk. What makes this pairing even bolder is that they get romantic and discuss sex in code language. Pothen is a proven talent. His performance is confident. Urvashi surprises right from the first scene. She looks like a femme fatale, a victim, a vulnerable woman and everything in between.
Ali Reza, Arvind Krishna and others leave no lasting impression. They are overshadowed by Urvashi, probably due to the occasionally sketchy nature of the writing.
Technical Departments:
For a thriller, the film has got a really bland score (by Nagarjuna Talluri) that doesn't underline the gravity of the situation. Editor Satya Giduturi's dull pacing of the scenes only aggravates the problem. Even though the overall length of the film is not a stretch, some scenes are deliberately slow-paced to heighten the mystery.
Cinematographer Chetan Madhuranthakam shows some innovation in the initial scenes (notice how the camera navigates when Ali Reza's character enters the scene for the first time). By and by, the photography becomes generic.
Hits:
The basic idea is respectable. Many Indian scientists have died mysteriously. 'Grey' explores one probable or actual cause.
The film becomes a true-blue thriller in the second half. The pre-climax and climax portions have been handled decently.
The occasional twist or two that not many can see coming, especially if they believe the film is an erotic thriller.
No misleading elements have been placed.
Misses:
The dialogues and their delivery cry for imagination.
The first half doesn't raise the stakes. Perhaps, the director should have tried to make a genre-defying film instead of beating around the bush.
An element of contrived story-telling.
Lack of tension-building. The focus is more on the sexual tension between a man and a woman rather than real tension.
Vox Verdict:
'Grey', at first, appears to be an erotic thriller masquerading as a crime story. But when it stays true to its material and lives up to the promise made by the opening credits, it really comes into its own.
Rating: 2.75
