Movie: Anaganaga O Athidhi
Rating: 1.5/5
Banner: Trend Loud
Cast: Payal Rajput, Chaitanya Krishna, Anand Chakrapani, Veena Sunder, and others
Music: Arrol Correli
Cinematography: Rakesh B
Editor: Preethi, Babu Srivastava
Producers: Raja Ramamurthy, Chidambaram Natesan
Story, Screenplay, direction: Dayal Padmanabhan
Release date: November 20, 2020
Streaming on: Aha
Small-budgeted films are regularly premiering on “Aha” Telugu OTT space. Payal Rajput starrer “Anaganaga O Athidhi” is the latest film that is streaming now.
Let’s analyze.
Story:
Mallika (Paayal Rajput) lives with her parents in an isolated house, that is far away from the main village. The family is going through financial burdens.
The young Mallika desires to get married. One day, a fortune-teller predicts that the family will get to see a great amount of money soon but warns them to look beyond the fortunes. Mallika rubbishes his talk.
On the same day, a tourist lands at their house and seeks shelter for a day. The tourist Seenu (Chaitanya Krishna) is carrying a lot of money and gold in suitcases. Mallika sets her eyes on him and his money.
What happens during that day forms the rest of the story.
Artistes’ Performances:
Paayal Rajput has done a role that has scope for performance. She is sincere in her effort but the characterization lacks the punch. Although there is a hint that she’s a hormonally charged girl, the sequences are straight of old movies.
The dubbing given for her voice is also poor. Chaitanya Krishna is just okay.
Anand Chakrapani as Paayal’s father and the actress who played mother’s role have done justice to their roles.
Technical Excellence:
The film has the technical standards of a 90’s DD TV series. Cinematography, art direction, music, everything is of low quality.
Highlights:
Twist in the tale
Drawback:
Everything else
The sluggish pace
Old-style making
Analysis
“Anaganaga O Athidhi” is the remake of a Kannada film titled “Aa Karaala Ratri”. Set in an unspecified period time, the film begins with the voiceover that the burning house that we are seeing is not the beginning of the story but the end, thus hints about the tragic climax.
Revolving around just four characters in a secluded house, the story unfolds like an old TV serial. The poor setup, the dialogues, the situations, and all have the stamp of an art movie of the 1970s.
Paayal Rajput’s character is presented as a girl who is raging with hormones and talks about sex in a suggestive way – like plucking a sugar cane, telling her father that she also knows about his other ‘noisy’ activities.
She also uses double-meaning words to Chaitanya Krishna. All these sequences give an idea of how she is longing to have a male companion. But these scenes are filmed in a boring manner. The drama goes on at a sluggish pace.
Except for the final twist, the entire drama makes a dreary watch. Though the twist has shock value, it defies the logic. The moral of the story is one should have control over lust and desire.
To sum up, “Anaganaga O Athidhi” is another low-quality movie with hardly any redeeming points.
Bottom-line: Old and Cliched
