Nikhil Siddhartha and Anupama Parameswaran’s romantic love drama, 18 Pages had a theatrical release today. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: Siddharth ( Nikhil) an app developer by profession finds a Diary roadside in a drunken condition. Later, he opens it and starts reading and comes to know that the diary was written by a girl named Nandini( Anupama Parmeswaran) 2 years back in 2019. During the reading process, Siddhu falls in love with Nandini and starts searching for her in reality. Will Siddhu find whereabouts of Nandini? What is the role of Dr Sandeep (Dinesh Tej) in the entire setup? What is the backstory of Nandini, forms the crucial crux.
Performances: Nikhil is fine with his usual acting as a guy who is search of his soulmate. His acting during the second half proceedings bring depth to the narrative.
Heroine Anupama Parmeswaran is main attraction for this romantic love drama. Her makeover as an innocent girl is good and gave effortless acting in the character that has scope perform. The virtual chemistry between the lead pair is showcased nicely.
Arjun Kalyan is decent in his role as a doctor. His conversation scenes with Anupama’s character add weightage to a few key scenes. Bigg Boss fame Sarayu gets a meaty role as hero’s best buddy. Her role has proper justification.
Actors such as Shatru and Ajay are okay in their negative shaded roles. Padding artists such as Goparaju Ramana among others are fine in their limited roles.
Technicalities: Gopi Sundar’s music registers. Be it songs or background score, Gopi Sundar delivered quality output for the film. Three montage songs are shot nicely.
The photography work by A Vasanth is top-notch. His work is visible on screen. The texture of the film is showcased superbly. Editing by Naveen Nooli is fine.
Dubbing work looks disturbed in a few scenes. The team would have rechecked the final copy properly to avoid it. Production design work is good and so is the case with the production values.
Analysis: While star director Sukumar provided story, screenplay and dialogues, his mentor Palnati Surya Pratap directs 18 Pages. The film has a fresh concept that is related to two different time zones.
Though the theme is nice, the entire first half runs on a slow note with some artificial emotions. The cinematic liberty used during this time will definitely divert the audience mood. Till interval, the film has no solid connectivity.
But surprisingly, the film starts picking up the pace in the second half where the hero starts intense search for the heroine. The emotional scenes which come during this time are executed neatly. To summerize, 18 Pages is a romantic love drama that has soul in it. Though the narrative has a few cliches, overall it will end up as a satisfactory watch.
Verdict: Engaging romance!
Rating: 3/5
