Classical dancer Sandhya Raju is making her acting debut with a dance based film titled, Natyam. Also starring Kamal Kamaraju, Rahul, this Revanth Korukonda directional has hit the screens today. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: Sithara( Sandhya Raju), a trained classical dancer has a childhood dream of performing for Kadambari Natyam at her village in the presence of her dance guru( Aditya Menon). But Sithara’s dream will be stopping by her guru as he has a sad experience with Kadambari Natyam in the past. As a sub-plot, Sithara’s story with a guy named Rahul( Rahul), who comes to her village from Hyderabad to learn classical dance will be showcased. How will Rahul help Sithara in her journey? Will Sithara able to fulfill her dream? How is Hari’s( Kamal Kamaraju) character interlinked with the entire setup? To know that, you have to watch the film in the theaters near you.
Performances: Sandhya Raju is amazing with her classical dance skills as her dance performing episodes are a major plus for the movie. Her Art explores the beauty of classical dance nicely and brings depth to the proceedings. Though her performance during non-dance episodes is decent, she has to work hard and improve her acting skills in the further films.
Kamal Kamaraju is decent in his classical dancer role which has a negative touch to it. Looks-wise actor Rahul is good and gave a decent performance. Aditya Menon as dance guru is okay and gave a good performance.
Senior actors such as Subhaleka Sudhakar, Bhanupriya are wasted as their roles are limited to only few scenes.
Technicalities: Music composed by Shravan Bharadwaj is good as it elevates the mood of the film neatly. Three situational songs which comes during crucial juncture of the film are composed by using good sounding.
The film director Revanth Korukonda himself has done the cinematography and editing work for the film. While cinematography is alright, editing could have been better.
Sandhya Raju has designed costumes for the film which are apt for the film’s setup.
Analysis: Director Revanth Korukonda daring act of choosing a non-commercial and almost a Art film as his debut film should be definitely appreciated. Revanth did enough paper work in finalising the locations which is visible on the screen. Though Revanth has created an authentic premise for the film by incorporating classical dance related stuff, he would have spend some more time on writing even more engaging screenplay version for unanimous applause.
Lack of solid performances from the lead cast is a major minus for the film. Though Sandhya Raju performed superbly in dance episodes, her facial expressions during the normal scenes is not up to the mark. As Sandhya Raju is new to the acting field, camera fear in visible in a few scenes and she has to work on this aspect in the upcoming movies.
To summerize, Natyam is a dance based emotional drama that revolves around the life story of a classical dancer Sithara and her dream of performing Kadambari Natyam. If you love watching dance based films then Natyam will end up as a easy one time watch during this weekend.
Verdict: A tribute to classical dance!
Rating: 3/5
