National award-winning writer Sandeep Raj of Color Photo fame provided story for yet another film titled, Mukhachitram. Directed by Gangadhar, the film has hit the silver screens today. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: The film opens with the introduction of a plastic surgeon Dr Rajkumar (Vikas Vasista) from Hyderabad. He finds the biodata of Mahathi( Priya Vadlamani) a traditional girl from Vijayawada through a mediator. Later, Rajkumar goes to Mahathi’s house and convinces her father to marry her. A few months ago the marriage, Mahathi dies all of sudden. Dr Rajkumar who doesn’t want to miss his wife’s memories decides to replace her face with his friend Maya’s(Ayesha Khan). Who is Maya? What is her backstory? What is Dr Rajkumar’s intention behind replacing Maya’s original face with Mahathi’s, forms the crucial crux.
Performances: New actor Vikas Vasista did a decent job as Dr Rajkumar. Be it dialogue delivery or his facial expressions, Vikas tried to showcase multi-dimensions in his character in a convincing way.
Young actress Priya Vadlamani is cute on screen as a homely lady and gave a good performance in the multi-layered role. Her screen presence brings depth to a few key episodes in the second half. Actress Ayesha Khan is okay with her acting in the given key role. 30Weds20 fame Chaitanya Rao gave a good performance in his limited role.
Young hero Vishwak Sen is fine in his cameo as a lawyer. Senior actor Ravishankar is decent in his criminal lawyer role. Other supporting artists are okay in their respective roles.
Technicalities: Music by Kaala Bhairava is good as his background score registers well. Though the film has a couple of songs they are situational.
The photography work is fine. The editing work is decent but not up to the mark. The dialogues are clap-worthy during the last thirty minutes. The production design is good and so is the case with the production values.
Analysis: Writer Sandeep Raj’s intention behind writing the story from a woman’s point of view is good but he would have worked more on presenting the theme in an even better manner.
After all the twists are revealed halfway through the second half, things look predictable during the pre-climax and climax portions. Though the film director Gangadhar did his job perfectly, the loopholes in the narrative might become drawbacks for him.
To summarize, Mukhachitram has a good concept but the lack of interesting proceedings comes as a major minus. While Priya Vadlamani gave a good performance in her lead role, the diluted presentation makes the film a below-average watch.
Verdict: Fails to impress!
Rating: 1.5/5
