Ardha Shathabdham, a social drama starring Karthik Rathnam and Krishna Priya in the lead roles had a direct OTT release on Aha today. Let’s see how it goes.
Story: Set in a small village named Sircilla in Telangana, the film revolves around the love story of Krishna( Karthik Rathnam) with Pushpa( Krishna Priya), a girl from the same village. How is Krishna and Pushpa’s love matter interlinked with the caste fights in Siricilla? How will Krishna handle the further circumstances? What is the role of Sai Kumar’s Ex Naxalite role? To know that you have to watch the film.
Performances: Looks-wise, Karthik Rathnam is good in the lead role and gives a decent performance. His acting in a few scenes in the crucial second half is impressive.
Heroine Krishna Priya is apt in her role as an expressive girl and did her job perfectly. Her acting in a key scene during the interval block will bring so depth to the proceedings.
Naveen Chandra did a special role in the movie as an aggressive cop but his character was designed poorly. One wonders how the actor has even accepted to do the role as it has no proper justification. The same is the case with Sai Kumar’s role as Ex Naxalite which lacks proper clarity in the ideology.
Other actors like Subhalekha Sudhakar, Ajay among others are just okay in their respective roles.
Technicalities: Music by Nawfal Raja AIS is decent as his background score works at parts. Though the songs composed by him are good they are misplaced in the movie.
Cinematography by Venkat R Shakamuri and EJ Venu is good as the rustic flavour in the village atmosphere is showcased in an impressive manner. Editing work by J Prathap Kumar is dull.
Dialogues written for Subhalekha Sudhakar on the caste and the system functioning in the society are nice. The production values for this limited budget movie are okay.
Analysis: The basic theme of the film is okay but director Ravindra Pulle failed completely in executing it in a proper way. His narration and screenplay version has too many cliches. The film starts on a decent note and falls flat eventually with some unengaging scenes involving Krishna and his one-sided love story.
Though the director brings a major twist in the heroine angle later, it soon dilutes with some underwhelming scenes related to the caste fight in the town. Adding to it, the rushed and routine template scenes at regular intervals disconnects the viewers’ interest.
The film lacks proper emotions and the street fights based on caste problems are also not executed in a gripping manner and dilute the entire presentation.
Verdict: Disappointing!!!
Rating: 1/5
