Virata Parvam starring Rana Daggubati and Sai Pallavi as the lead pair under the direction of Venu Udugula has hit the screens today. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: The film starts in the early 70s with the birth of Vennela and the narrative continues in the 80s and 90s time period. Hailing from a small village near Warangal, Vennela ( Sai Pallavi) who is highly impressed with the revolutionary novels written by Naxalite leader Ravanna( Rana Daggubati) starts admiring him. Eventually, Vennela falls in neck-deep love with Ravanna and decides to meet him by running away from home. After going through many hardships, Vennela finally meets the Naxalite head Ravanna. How will Ravanna react when Vennela expresses her love for him? What kind of life challenges will Vennela undergo in the journey with Naxalite Ravanna and his troop? To know that, you have to watch the film in the theatres near you.
Performances: Definitely, Sai Pallavi is the major highlight of the film. The talented actress literally lived in the given Vennela character and impresses with her natural performance. Her appearance in the village belle role is good and brings authentic texture to the film.
On the other hand, Rana Daggubati gave his best to his character as a Naxalite leader. His rustic avatar, physical appearance and dialogue delivery are an added advantage to this serious drama.
Noted artists such as Zarina Wahab, Priyamani, Naveen Chandra, Eshwari Rao, Sai Chand, Nandita Das, Rahul Ramakrishna, and Banerjee among others are believable in their padding roles. Nivetha Pethuraj is impressive in her key cameo.
Technicalities: Suresh Bobbili’s music is one of the highlights of the movie. While his background score is engaging throughout the film, his sounding for all the situational songs is nice.
The photography work by Dani Sanchez-Lopez and Divakar Mani is simply superb. The rustic and forest locations in the movie are captured in a beautiful manner.
Editing work by A Sreekar Prasad is okay. Production values for this limited-budget film are good. The artwork and production design are done perfectly.
Analysis: Written and directed by Venu Udugula, Virata Parvam is loosely based on some real-life incidents. The way Venu designed the script by utilising the data gathered through his groundwork is appreciatable. Apart from the direction, Venu Udugula even provided the screenplay and dialogues for this intense drama. While his revolutionary dialogues are placed nicely at regular intervals, the director’s straight-to-the-point narration without any deviations elevates the mood of the movie nicely.
After a passable first half, the proceedings during the second half run on a flat note and fail to create a solid impact. Adding to it, the way things shape up during the last twenty minutes with rushed proceedings might disappoint the viewers.
To summerize, Virata Parvam is an intense social drama set in Naxalism backdrop that has solid performances from the lead artists. But on the flip side, lack of commercial elements, and a not-so-familiar storyline may not get unanimous applause from all sections of the audience.
Verdict: Decently executed revolutionary drama!
Rating: 3/5
