118 Movie Review

Nandamuri Kalyanram gave KV Guhan his first chance to direct and the movie is a thriller. The trailers have been good and the movie came out today. Let’s find out how the movie is?…

Plot: In a resort at 1:18 AM, people encounter a weird dream of a woman (Nivetha Thomas) being molested and killed brutally. An investigative journalist Gowtham (Nandamuri Kalyanram), also experiences the same. He tries to get to the end of it as it haunts him. He finds the clues that are sprayed out in the best possible fashion and tries to get to the end of it despite obstacles. (As it is a thriller, revealing more than this will lead to spoilers).

Performances:: Nandamuri Kalyanram lacks and lags in choosing scripts and he does it again. He tried his heart out to fit into the character but the character lacks in any charm to follow it till the end.

Nivetha Thomas has to come out of the mold that he is building for herself. She showed that she is a performer, now she needs to expand her range. Shalini Pandey looks pretty but wasted. Rest all have no purpose.

Technicalities:: KV Guhan as a cinematographer is really good even in this restricted production too. He managed to come up with imaginative lighting and good concepts. But he failed in giving them all a purpose as a writer. He couldn’t really involve any audience member with his pacing and unique style concept. He just makes it as old as it can get and writes it as lazily as he can.

As a director, he decided to use some establish shots and made it apparent that he uses them again and again. He doesn’t come up with imaginative visuals after the first few minutes and even told the subject in a very draggy fashion. A crisp script and sharp narration could have made it at least watchable.

Shekar Chandra tried to follow themes from popular films and he remixed them so much that we feel like, the producers could have used original ones by paying royalties.

Thammiraju’s editing work as lethargic as it can get. He just doesn’t really follow the rules of a thriller, that is to be crisp and sharp. His edit seems to even drag the already slow-paced film.

Analysis:: The most important issue in a thriller is to engage audiences. One cannot dilute the impact of the lead actors emotions in such thrillers. For a new concept to propel into a better film, it needs to deal with a new issue. For commercial values or even for any safety measures, it cannot deal with the same old problem and then wish to be something new. 118 starts off well but ends badly.

Rating: 2/5

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