Starring Regina Cassandra and Nivetha Thomas in the lead roles, Saakini Daakini directed by Sudheer Varma has hit the silver screens today. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: Set in a police academy backdrop, the film opens with a cat fight between Damini( Regina Cassandra) and Shalini( Nivetha Thomas) who join the academy as trainees. But one incident brings both the opposite poles under one roof. What is the incident? How an unfertilized egg harvesting gang interconnected with the proceedings, forms key crux of the film.
Performances: The lead ladies Regina Cassandra and Nivetha Thomas did their given roles with good ease. The amount of hard work they both did for the film is visible on screen.
Though both the ladies did their roles with utmost dedication, Nivetha’s work is a bit more impressive compared to Regina Cassandra.
Other artists such as Raghu Babu, 30 Years Prudhvi and Sudarshan Reddy evoke good fun in their comic roles.
Technicalities: The editing work by Viplav Nyshadam is not up to the mark. Though he kept the runtime within limits, he would have taken care of the scene order in the second half.
The cinematography work by Richard Prasad is fine as he showcased the night mood with a good lighting setup.
The music by Mikey McCleary is adequate. His background score for a few key scenes is not so impressive. Production values for this limited-budget film are okay.
Analysis: Director Sudheer Varma’s thought of remaking the Korean action drama, Midnight Runners in Telugu is good and trying to showcase the entire film in a female-centric version is good as well but he would have focused on presenting the proceedings in the second half in a gripping way.
To summerize, Saakini Daakini is an action drama that has a passable first half but the lack of engaging second half makes the film a disappointing watch.
Verdict: Second half syndrome!
Rating: 2/5
