Rating: 2.25/5
Banners: Ticket Factory, S Originals
Cast: Brahmanandam, Swathi Reddy, Samuthirakhani, Rahul Vijay, Shivathmika Rajashekar, Divya Sripada and others
Music: Shravan Bharadwaj and Prashanth R Vihari
Director of Photography: Raj K Nalli
Editor: Garry BH
Producers: Akhilesh Vardhan and Srujan Yarabolu
Writer, Director: Harsha Pulipaka
Release Date: Dec 09, 2022
Anthologies are always interesting and when it is surrounded by a theme, the project gets further exciting. This is one such attempt which has been made around the five senses. Let us see if it works or not.
Story
Veda Vyas (Brahmanandam) is the narrator who comes up with five stories and each story is about each of the five senses. The first is about an IT professional (Naresh Agastya) who is quite stressed with his life but his sole desire is to visit a beach. The theme here is sight. The second story is about two youngsters (Rahul Vijay and Shivatmika) who figure out they are made for each other, the theme here is taste. The third story is about a retired man (Samuthirakani) whose daughter is in the final stages of her pregnancy and he suddenly experiences a change of smell at his home. The theme here is smell. The fourth story is about a poor newlywed couple (Vikas, Divya) who encounter a rather dangerous situation. The theme here is touch. The last story is about Chitra (Swathi) who is a paralyzed writer and she has the shock of her life when she meets her most devoted fan. The theme here is sound.
Performances
Brahmanandam showed good strength as the narrator and this was something different from him. Samuthirakani stands next with his matured and balanced performance. Uttej is superb. Shivatmika was decent. Swathi Reddy was good as a paraplegic. Rahul, Vikas and Naresh did their bit as required. Divya Sripada was eye catching.
Crew
The background score was alright but the songs had some recall value. Cinematography was good enough but the budget issues were visible. Dialogues are well written. Editing could have been a lot better. Costumes were good, art department was colorful.
Hits
. Fine performances by established artistes
. Fourth and fifth stories
. Songs
Misses
. Editing
. The takeoff
. Slow pace
Deeper Look
As mentioned earlier, anthologies are always exciting as a subject but then each story has to be laced with enough substance and compelling narrative. In most of the movies that came in this genre, the best stories come first but the makers here have taken a different route. To put it straight, the first two stories were plain bizarre and somewhat unrealistic. The themes of ‘sight’ and ‘taste’ could have been explained with a better plot. In the second story, the saving grace was Shivatmika with an impressive screen presence. The third story picks up the steam and due credit goes to Samuthirakani’s performance. However, the actual engagement starts from the fourth and reaches the peak at the fifth. Overall, the takeoff is quite slow and it takes a while to really pick up. Given the theme and the tone, such films are more suited for home viewing rather than silver screen experience.
Vox Verdict
A Decent Bag Of Tales