Telugu audiences would immediately remember director Sivanageswara Rao when someone talks about the film 'Money'. He became so popular with his debut film and his films 'Pattukondi Chooddam' and 'Sisindri' were also quite memorable. Though comedy is his forte, he tried a different film on his own banner for his latest flick called 'Photo'. It is a real thriller. Sivanageswara Rao proved his versatility with this film. However, he ably mixed the love thread in this thriller. In order to prove his ability in making the film, he chose three new faces in the lead and that also worked out well.
Siddhu (Anand) has a passion for photography. He returns from the US and Bhanu (Mukta) is his girl friend. They love each other very much. On one fateful night, while returning from a party with Bhanu, he dashes a girl. But drives away in fear. Bhanu fears that the girl is haunting them like a ghost. At the same time, during a film shoot, Siddhu finds a ghost in a film shot on three girls. Three of his friends also die under mysterious circumstances. Fear keeps haunting Siddhu and Bhanu. Moreover, a professor (Nutan Prasad) tells them that there are ghosts and they could be seen when we shot a film with a Polaroid camera.
Bhanu decides to find whether there is really a ghost or not and finds the photograph of a girl called Swapna (Anjali) in their college laboratory, and when she tried to take the photograph, she finds the image of a ghost near it. Surprisingly, the same girl is also spotted with Siddhu in a photograph in his room. Bhanu asks Siddhu about Swapna. Sidhu reveals that during their college days, she was his classmate. In order to save her from the clutches of three bad boys, Sidhu moves friendly with her, but incidentally Swapna falls in deep love with him. During the farewell party, he smoothly refuses her love saying that he moved friendly with her only to save her from his three friends.
Bhanu and Sidhu go to their village, where they find that Swapna is dead. One day, she finds a photograph where Sidhu and Swapna in a compromising position. Though Sidhu refuses it, Bhanu did not believe him. Finally, Swapna's spirit throws Sidhu also from the top floor of a building and he suffers grievous injuries. In the climax, a common friend of Sidhu and Swapna reveals the real secret behind the 'Photo' in which Sidhu and Swapna were in a compromising position. In fact, the three friends of Sidhu rape Swapna and when Sidhu tried to teach them a lesson, they hit him from behind and create a photograph through which they started blackmailing him. As the truth revealed, Swapna's spirit leaves Sidhu and the film ends on a happy note.
The story of the film is said to be a real life incident happened around two-and-a-half years ago in the AP coastal area. Another similar incident happened also in Nizam area some nine months ago. The story reveals a common problem in colleges. The film had an excellent and gripping screenplay all through the film. Though the first half of the film is a little loose, the film picks up before the interval bang and the same tempo continued till the climax. Good suspense was maintained all through the film. Camera work by KG Soman is excellent. He used a different lighting scheme in the film. Though there are only three songs, the background score had really lifted the mood of the film. Music by Rohit Raj is quite good and it could be noticed in re-recording. The director was able to extract the best of their performance and yes, Anand, Anjali and Mukta gave their best. Graphic works were also up to the mark. As producers are after Sivanageswara Rao to make comedy flicks and the director out to bring out a thriller, he himself produced the film and also succeeded in it.
Cast : Anand, Mukta, Anjali, Jayasudha, Suman Setty, Tanikella Bharani, Nutan Prasad, Brahmanandam, V
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