Rating: N/A
Banner: Kaypas Productions
Cast: Rajendra Prasad, Pavani Reddy, Jayashree, Deepti and others
Music: S Rajesh
Cinematographer: Ravikumar Nerla
Editor: Basva Paidireddy
Director: Bhavani Shanker
Producers: Vijay Mynam, Satish Mynam
Release date: 26/10/2012
Story:
A retired army major Rajendra Prasad (Rajendra Prasad) is leading a quiet life in a upscale gated community along with his wife Jaya (Jayashree). But the problem is he is suffering with an unusual illness known as Hypnogogue Delusion wherein he starts getting confused between reality and dreams. What he thinks is a dream is happening for real and vice-versa. In this process, he gets acquainted with a neighbouring girl Neetu (Pavani) and his illness tends to cause few uncomfortable situations for Jaya. But one incident creates the major shock. What is that incident? How does Major deal with it forms the rest of the story.
Performances:
Rajendra Prasad as always excels in his role. He is versatile, has the grim expression and above all, it is his styling and getups which are quite interesting.
The Malayalam actress Jayashree made her presence felt in the presence of a big actor like Rajendra Prasad and she has that natural sex appeal which is hard to miss.
Pavani Reddy was competent and she got to share the maximum screen space with the protagonist and made the most of it. The others did their bit as required.
Highlights
- Technical values
- Storyline
- Cinematography and sound
Drawbacks
- Zero commercial value
- Slow
- Complicated screenplay
Analysis:
The Telugu audience is quite conventional and they are used to a certain format of films but then there is a new wave of filmmakers who are coming in with revolutionary concepts and ‘out of the box’ ideas. This film belongs to the latter genre.
It has no songs, no comedy track and no masala that comprises in a commercial film format. That shows the director has no commercial idea or intention but only quenched his passion to do a different film.
At the outset, the film is a completely cult psychological thriller and it would take nearly twenty minutes for the audience to understand what is happening onscreen. The ability to connect with the psyche of the protagonist is the key here and for the regular audience who seek some entertainment and drama this is definitely not the one to look for.
It is known that the Telugu audience has a tendency to say great things about Hollywood psychological thrillers though they partly understand. It is an affinity towards the foreign stuff. Similarly if someone from native land attempts, they mock at him with a preconceived notion that our minds cannot match with that of abroad. But ‘Dream’ is a film that should be patted. It has film festival material in it. There was an ample compromise on budget for back ground music which made the film plain. Producers would have invested better on this craft.
On the other hand, this is indeed a bold attempt from the director who has projected a rather dark side of human emotion and psychology which is real but hard to accept. Overall, this is a film which is offbeat, different and very unusual.
If you want to experience something different and if you have deep thinking energy and then you can watch it
Bottomline: For non formula lovers
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
