Movie: Ye Mantram Vesave
Rating: 1/5
Banner: Golisoda Films
Cast: Vijay Deverakonda, Shivani and Others
Music: Abus Samad
Story, Screenplay, Producer and Director: Shridhar Marri
Release Date: 9th March, 2018
Vijay Devakonda returns with a film that has had no hype prior to its release. In fact, the film has a serious message for youth, just like his past film, but this time, it talks about how today's youth are addicted to technology and how they are finding little time for living a 'real' life thanks to the Net and video games.
Let's see if the director has packaged the message interestingly...
Story:
Nikhil (Vijay Devarakonda) is a video-game addict like many youth of his age. He spends his day playing video games and during such play, he meets Rags (Shivani) online. Incidentally, Rags is a video game designer and she puts down a condition that he could meet in real life if he can complete a game.
However, while playing the game, Vijay figures out that Rags is in danger. Will he save Rags, will he overcome his addiction for video games and become normal again?
This forms the rest of the story.
Artistes' Performances:
The film was made five years back and one can see how raw Vijay was as an actor back then. Still, he is the best of the lot and creates an impact compared to the rest of the star cast.
Leading girl Shivani irritates with her pale look.
Technical Excellence:
Little said better about the amateurish film-making. The film gives the feel of a bad high school project and the technical values are real bad. The film also has a low budget feel all through.
Overall, despite story's potential, the film-making is of low quality and this mars the experience for the viewers.
Strengths:
None
Drawback:
Bad making
Lack of depth
Low budget feel
Analysis:
The film was made at a time when Vijay Devarakonda was struggling to find a foothold in the industry. Of course, now he is a star with reckoning thanks to Pelli Choopulu and Arjun Reddy. But Ye Mantram Vesave shows the struggling actor.
While director-producer Sridhar Marri's attempt at making a message-oriented film is understandable, it is a case of a story gone awry.
The director's intention is to show how the youth of today are losing the 'human' touch by being addicted to internet and video games. So far so good. But the problem comes in the form of execution.
For starters, though the film is based around video games, the game designed by the heroine looks like a kid's game.
According to story, the game wins the first prize in National Gaming Championship. But nowhere does the game feel pacy and racy. Instead, the audience will totally agree with the heroine's boss' comment that the game is no good.
The clues that the heroine gives to the hero and the game played totally kills the impact that the film is supposed to have on the audience.
As for Arjun Reddy star Vijay Devarakonda, this is a film that he can safely forget as a mistake he did during his learning phase. Surely, he will not want to remember such a film few years down the lane.
While many actors who are from non-filmi families do have such 'backlog' films, bringing it out of the cans after so many years does no good to his career at this point in time.
While the film itself lacks impact, the climax scenes surely test the patience of the viewer. The director creates a hide and seek game of sorts that is thoroughly predictable and headache-inducing to say the least.
In fact, in one scene, there is a dialogue -- if you want to give a message, send an SMS. That kind of is the biggest irony of the film, which while wanting to preach something loses its ground.
In all, it is a bad attempt and a bad watching experience for Vijay's fans. But more than his fans, it is surely a painful reminder for Vijay Devarakonda, that he had acted in one such film.
As for the audience, if any, they will end up wanting to browse the net and play video games, instead of sitting through the film. Sad, but true!
Bottomline: Video Game For Audience
