Amaravathi – Telugu Movie Review
Published on Feb 18 2010
Sudden, loud sounds; spooky, low-lit parking lots/Bungalows or similar; the criminal’s den with unexplainable red threads dangling everywhere (instead of cobwebs?) make up a lot of the first half of Ravibabu’s latest thriller after Anasuya. Again with muse Bhoomika playing the title role, it’s basically the story of an obsessively deranged childhood sweetheart and an obsessive compulsive (for the number 10) but otherwise bubbly and normal girl. Her alcoholic father kills Sreenu, slitting his throat and pushing him into a river and then killing his mother for being chummy with his daughter. Years later STF is baffled by pregnant women nearing delivery getting robbed of their babies while someone mysteriously calls for an ambulance. Agent Venkat played by the writer-director steps in to solve this heinous serial-crimes, capturing a guy red-handed at the scene but unable to get a word out of him. His own hemophilic wife, meanwhile, is pregnant.
The director has a thing for the human body. Anasuya was all about him portraying an obsessive lover whose object of fixation dies, and being a firm believer in after-life (or something occult like that) he tries to piece her together (don’t throw up yet) by killing people to whom the dead girl’s organs had been donated to. This movie again deals with medicine, psychology; even though there is no serial-killing here, the goriness remains intact, and increased if anything. The brief love track between Venkat and Latha (Sneha) oscillates between cutesy and ludicrousness-she shoots herself casually as her father refuses to marry her off to Venkat. The purpose seems to be to establish that she is hemophilic.
Ravibabu looks his part, with that typical cop-in-shape look and does a good job with all scenes non-romantic. Bhoomika in her brief role makes her presence felt. Sneha is good. Tarakaratna is practically re-introduced in the movie, Ravibabu is pretty brave to take this actor for this particular role. But with a deadpan expression or monkey-tricks, the man-beefed up and post-makeover, has shown potential. Sindhura Gadde does a convincing job as a tough cop.
Editing is good as is cinematography. The writing gets better in the second half and the direction stagnates in the first. All those scenes of abducting/operating/stealing fetuses from the heavily pregnant ladies is seriously overdone. Without all the build-up and suddenness also it could be tackled. The setting seems repetitive by the second time even though the situation is different. Having some other potential killer in some of the cases is one fictional liberty the writer could take (because its too much of a coincidence) but provides a good red herring apparently not for the task force but for the audience. The cheating husband, the husband who wants a boy, a spurned lover are never investigated by the cops. But all those stares, lights flickering, water faucets bursting forth could have been toned down or substituted for..think, makers, think.
The pace is either too fast or too slow, depending on the track. Somewhere the movie takes off on a tangent, trying very hard to convince the audience of the criminally deranged person’s abilities (spoiler). The music is okay, but as mentioned before, could have been toned down in the first half. Most of the twists are pretty predictable, but still the one at the end contains some surprise. The pearl metaphor (spoiler) is the only non-gory part of the crime track since the love story behind it is also filled with rage and murder. Obviously the subject is not to everyone’s tastes. But also, the finesse required for a tricky subject like this is missing. With the pace never really getting to a right momentum and the suspense and tension just barely working, the movie doesn’t live up to its interesting poster which fuelled Great Expectations.
Cast & Crew:
Cast: Bhoomika, Sneha, Ravibabu, Gadde Sindhura, Tarakaratna and others
Banner: Bhavya Creations
Music: Shekar Chandra
Producer: Ananda Prasad
Writer & Director: Ravibabu
Click here to watch Amaravathi Trailer
Click here to visit Amaravathi Photo Gallery
