Movie: Anukshanam
Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: A.V. Pictures
Cast: Vishnu Manchu, Revathi, Surya, Madhu Shalini, Tejaswi, Supreet, Shravan, Sana, Brahmanandam etc
Direction: Ram Gopal Varma
Producer: Vishnu Manchu
Release date: 13 September, 2014
After being criticized incessantly for making movies feeding the baser instincts of human psyche, this time, Ram Gopal Varma comes up with a crime-thriller about a serial killer. Let’s check out how the movie shaped up…
Story:
The story starts off with the murder of a young woman. Even as the police try to investigate the case and the news is splashed all over television channels and media, more murders take place. In comes special officer Gautam (Vishnu Manchu) who gets on to the case and tries to figure out what could have led to the murders. Meanwhile, series of murders take place and there is furor among public and pressure on police to trace the killer. Despite figuring out that all murders have been committed by a serial killer, Gautam finds it difficult to trace the killer. That’s when behavior science specialist Sailaja (Revathi) enters the scene to help him and his team. The rest of the story shows how the serial killer is chased and trapped.
Artistes’ Performances:
Vishnu Manchu as the clean-shaven cop Gautam plays his part well. His six-foot frame and body language suit the character perfectly. Of course, at places his diction is a bit mumbled, but barring that he suits the part.
Another important character in the film is played by Revathi. The ageing actress plays her role with complete ease and seems to be least bothered appearing without any make-up at all. For her, playing the character of a visiting psychiatrist from the US who joins Gautam to help him trace the serial killer is a cake walk and she plays it as realistically as possible.
But the real catch of the film is Surya who plays the serial killer Seetharam. He is neither slick nor sophisticated, but his rugged looks and his otherwise dumb expressions totally go with the psycho taxi driver character that he plays. Barring his huge frame, his expressionless face can be easily lost in a crowd and that works for him.
Apart from them, the film has an ensemble cast including Madhu Shalini, Brahmanandam, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Tejaswi. All of them put in okay performances, though Madhu Shalini could have toned down her histrionics.
Technical Excellence:
If one compares Anukshanam with the taut Hollywood flicks made about serial killers, then one is bound to be disappointed. As is the norm in this genre, the film does not have high-pitch background score to augment the fear element neither does it boast of heavy-duty emotional dialogues. Instead Ram Gopal Varam makes a much tamer version which follows a straight forward narrative to simply reiterate the two premises on which the story is based.
Highlights:
- Vishnu
Drawbacks:
- Slow narrative
Analysis:
At a time when the audiences are hooked to shows like Crime Patrol, Saavdhan India, Ram Gopal Varma comes up with a story of a serial killer which tries to look into the psyche that makes him kill innocent people with no reason.
Ram Gopal Varma starts his film with two premises – that serial killing is very much a reality in India as it is in the West and secondly that serial killers kill their victims for sheer pleasure.
In fact, the film has Seetharam saying, ‘Sachin ki cricket ante ishtam, naaku champatam ante ishtam’.
So, throughout the film the audiences are shown how a serial killer develops his traits right at childhood, how parental negligence could turn them into serious criminals thirsting to get pleasure from their victim’s plight and how they crave for publicity and want to be famous.
To be fair to Ram Gopal Varma, he steers clear of scintillating the plot and in the process the film is shorn of nerve-wrecking emotional scenes which are a must-have in most Hollywood films of such genre.
The film highlights the real-time threat to young women from cab drivers, especially from unregistered cabs plying the metropolitan cities and uses a ‘no thrills and no frills’ approach of story-telling.
By the end however, one is left wondering as to what else Revathi’s character wants to find out from a guy like Seetharam, who bares all about his obsession for deriving pleasure from killing his innocent victims, when she pleads Vishnu to spare him during the climax.
In all, it is Ram Gopal Varma’s attempt at cashing in on the latest craze for crime series in India.
Bottomline: Simple Thriller
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
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