'Aswathama', starring Naga Shaurya in the lead, hit the screens this Friday.  Here is our review of the crime-thriller.

Story:

Gana (Naga Shaurya) is a doting brother of his sister Priya (Shagun Kaur).  Much to his shock, he finds her attempting suicide just days before her wedding.  Priya was forcibly raped and impregnated by an unknown assaulter when she was in an unconscious state.  Left with no clue, Gana now seeks to chase the villain by cracking one clue at a time.  When a VIP's daughter becomes a victim, things turn more ominous.  

How does Gana accomplish his mission?  Can he pay back the psychopathic beast in the same coin?

Analysis:

'Aswathama' falls in the category of crime-thrillers where the hero is a vigilante who is also a victim's relative and the villain is a psychopath with a scary mindset.  True to the genre, director Ramana Teja keeps the proceedings intact, without letting the gravitas vanish in the name of entertainment.  Like in some of the recent well-made thrillers, this film avoids the temptation of forced comedy moments and rom-com sequences.

The script tantalizes the audience before revealing the identity of the rapist.  The big reveal would have been terrific had the villain (Jisshu Sengupta) been familiar to the Telugu audience.  Nevertheless, the seasoned actor (who has delivered a number of critically-acclaimed performances in other languages) epitomizes the evil character he plays.  

The last 20 minutes of the film pack in a spine-chilling flashback that attempts to give a glimpse of how the villain's devilish persona has been shaping up over the years.  The film wants us to believe that he is sickening to the core because he was sickening always.  And if not vanquished, he will continue to be the pure evil that he was and is.  

Naga Shaurya's heroism is understated.  Some vigilantes don't have to be exceptional.  Gana is one such guy.  For someone who has played soft roles so far, Shaurya does his act well.  The scene where he tells Mehreen that some things can't be shared with even parents and girlfriend stands out.  

It doesn't take much time for the film to get to the task of narrating the actual story.  A quick duet visits us early on, only to give way to the actual plot.  

Ghibran's BGM is an asset.  Anbariv's action choreography could have been better.  Manojh Reddy's cinematography passes muster.  

Everything said, 'Aswathama' is also stuffed with convenient writing.  When a bigshot has suffered a terrible loss because of the villain, you expect the whole system to be there to crack the case.  The vigilante here is a one-man army, but why does he have to be on his own?  Like in last year's 'Arjun Suravaram', the system here goes on a holiday just so that the hero can walk away with UNESCO's Best Compulsive Saviour Award (don't Google it!).  

There is this unintentionally funny scene where the hero has to crack a character's password.  He looks for clues.  Since her room is full of her mother's pics, he thinks the password must be the mother's name.  By this logic, Amit Shah's Gmail password has to be CAANRC370 and Rahul Gandhi's must be Bangkokkok.  Just saying.

The hero makes the heroine dangerously chase a dangerous man and, minutes later, has the gall to say, "Rush out from the place.  I don't want to put you in trouble'.  Seriously?  The villain becomes foolhardy all of a sudden, just to coincide with the hero's hurried mission to nab him.

Just because it's a crime-thriller where the romantic track can be given a stepmotherly treatment, it doesn't mean you have the hero pay a relaxed tribute to the cigarette without having the basic romantic courtesy to meet the girl he has been in love with after stepping into India after years, that too a GF who can suffocate him with a flood of kisses.  The sister-brother sentiment is so cliched that the bro expectedly arrives late and the sis expectedly feigns anger.  The actress who has played the sister gives skin-deep expressions.  

Verdict:

'Aswathama' comes with a fairly engaging screenplay.  The premise is engrossing enough.  The proceedings become substantial in the climax.  With smarter writing, the loose ends could have been done away with. 

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