Film: Charulatha
Rating: 1/5
Banners: Sax Pictures, Geetha Films
Cast: Priyamani, Skanda, Saranya Ponvannan, Seetha, Ravi Shankar, Sai Sasi, Prasad and others
Music: Sundar C Babu
Cinematographer: Paneerselvam
Editor: Don Max
Director: Pon Kumaran
Producers: Dwarakeesh, Ramesh Krishnamurthy
Release date: 21/09/2012
Priyamani who is known for her natural acting talent seems to have come up with a different subject in a horror genre. Whether it is scary enough, let us see
Story:
Charu (Priyamani) and Latha (Priyamani again) are conjoined twins and grow up together. But at one point, both of them get separated through surgery and in this process Latha dies.
Meanwhile, Charu falls in love with Ravi (Skanda) and both decide to get married. However, strange incidents begin to happen when Charu comes to meet her ailing mother (Saranya). She begins to sense the presence of Latha who has returned as a ghost to trouble her.
Whether it is true, why did Latha come back and what happens from there forms the rest of the story.
Performances:
Priyamani gave her full to this role and did her best but her characters were not strengthened properly making it look weak. Still, she has done her part sincerely.
Skanda underplayed his role in the required manner. He is a new face to the Telugu circuit but he was at ease in front of camera and showed confidence in few scenes.
Saranya Ponvannan was standard, Seetha was alright, Ravishankar was brief, Sai Sasi was okay. The child artist was overacting and the rest didn’t have much to offer.
Highlights:
- Priyamani’s performance
- Climax twist
Drawbacks:
- Weak direction
- Zero fear factor
- Dull screenplay
- No shock value
- Slow pace
Analysis:
The fact that this happens to be a remake of the super hit Thai horror movie ‘Alone’ set a lot of expectations on this movie. Secondly, someone talented as Priyamani is leading from the front made it an attractive product. But despite having a readymade script and an efficient actress, the director failed to infuse any value to the film. It looked as if the film was running as if it had nothing to do with the audience.
Ideally, the feel was missing and it was only due to Priyamani’s screen presence the viewers showed some patience.
Speaking about her, why is Priyamani digging a grave to her career? She is beautiful, sexy, and immensely talented and despite possessing all rare qualities, her choices of films are bad. Whether it is desperation or insecurity, she sure is making a mess of her remaining future. The sooner she realizes it, the better it is for her.
The remake is nowhere near the original and the first half runs lifelessly with few erratic scenes. The second half tends to pick up some melodrama angle but has no depth or intensity. It is only one climax twist that is good.
That way, the resources were available but the director could not execute it at all. At the box office, this might not be able to stand a chance.
Bottomline: Better to watch the original Thai movie (even without subtitles)
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
