Movie: 365 Days
Rating: 1/5
Banner: Z3 Pictures, D V Cine Creations
Cast: Nandoo, Anaika Soti, Posani, Satya krishna and Others
Music: Nag Srivatsa, L M Prem
Editor: Anith
Producer: D Venkatesh
Story, Screenplay and Direction: Ram Gopal Varma
Release Date: May 22, 2015
Crime, action, horror… for 365 Days, this was Varma’s selling point. While it is surely a subject that one will not expect from Varma at this point in time, it is still surprising that he did choose to make a film on such a topic.
Of course, he did sound very excited about touching upon a new subject, but for the ordinary viewers, the film’s story has been done to death to say the least.
In short, the film is about the love between a couple and how it changes once they get married.
Varma discusses how two people who believe that they cannot live without each other fall in love and how they eventually start hating each other to such an extent that they go in for a divorce.
Well, it appears as if Varma wondered how it would be if a couple falls in love, marries and gets divorced within 365 days and then decided to make a movie. And probably that is also the reason for him to name the film 365 days.
While the idea cannot be discarded on face value, the director has to have some strong reasons and situations to show that a couple can fall in love and then get divorced within 365 days. But instead, like many Varma films in recent times, 365 days is also a half-baked attempt at having a shoddy script and going to the sets.
Though Varma touches upon a contemporary issue and an issue that is totally apt given the number of divorces that happen especially among married people, the way he has handled the screenplay leaves the audience disappointed once again. For starters, the film has way too many songs and since the film is barely two hours long, it kills the mood.
Another major thing that surprises one is the fact that 365 Days feels more like a television serial than a feature film. For starters, Varma’s characters, their characterization and his approach to handling them is totally telly serial like to say the least.
Of course, it does have some interesting scenes like the one where the boy holds the hand of the girl saying that he will tell read her palm and the one where he says that ‘annam udikindo ledo teliyadaaniki methuku chooste chaalu’, which are common tricks that guys use to impress girls. However, given that it is a Ram Gopal Varma film, the audiences are bound to go into theatres hoping to see some absolutely deep thoughts and ideas of Varma in the movie. But Varma makes a u-turn and ends up making a rather tame 365 Days.
Given that Varam tweets about anything and everything, it is indeed surprising that he refrains from going deep into issues and simply touches upon them from far.
But the real letdown is how the couple who get divorced, get back together and even end up having children.
Well, if you are looking for some path-breaking solutions for love, marriage and divorce, then 365 Days is not for you. Instead, Varma deals with how the present generation barely has any reasons to fall in love and fall out of love. He also touches upon how they are not sure of what they want and what they don’t want and what pushes them to do or not to do something.
But the film has no interesting dialogues or any mentionable technical values. Like his characters, the film too is a bland fare dished out by Varma. To conclude, 365 Days is a huge test for your patience.
Bottomline: 110 minutes of boredom
(Venkat can be reached [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
