Movie: W/O Ram
Cast: Lakshmi Manchu, Samrat Reddy, Aadarsh Balakrishna
Director: Vijay Yelakanti
Following the welcome trend of movies featuring women protagonists in Telugu, Manchu Lakshmi’s Wife of Ram aka W/O Ram tries to make its presence known. It does too. Well, almost.
Deeksha (Lakshmi Manchu), distraught from the murder of her husband sets out to investigate the case herself after the authorities don’t show interest. Constable Chary ( Priyadarshi), the one sincere officer from the Police Station takes it on himself to help Deeksha find Deeksha’s culprit. The film traces her journey through it and the reason behind the murder. As the movie progresses she along with the audience uncover clues leading to more clues to get to the bottom of the incident.
Even at the runtime of two hours and two minutes, and despite being quite a tight story, the movie is tardy. The silences, the pauses and the build up which were possibly placed there to add drama misfired and turned into lag. However, the film does keep you engaged. It keeps you hooked at least to know what happens next. Although the plot of the film has a lot to offer, the slow narrative is a drag.
W/O Ram depends solely on Lakshmi Manchu’s character and performance. While the character is well-rounded and is passably convincing, Lakshmi falls a little short. She delivered a fair performance in parts while in some she lacked. More so, in her delivery. Having said that, compared to her previous work, Wife of Ram is certainly a film that she can brag about. Priyadarshi in his role of a sincere cop delivers his usual and excels as usual. Aadarsh Balakrishna too bagged a role which was right up his alley from his earlier characters.
The movie is heavily dependent on the storyline while the cliches weigh it down. The wronged woman, good cop- bad cop, a rich evil brat and a monologue about the depleting safety for women – while the tropes were predictable the narrative was not. Dialogue too was dumbed down to a point that it seemed misplaced in the setting.
The remarkable attention to detail in the set design did not complement the content in those details. However, Vijay Yelakanti’s direction deserves a mention. Music blends right in with the visuals which works well for the film.
In all, Wife of Ram is a script with immense potential that missed the punch due to dry execution. If you do, watch it with an open mind.
— Srividya Palaparthi
srividya.palaparthi@newindianexpress.com
@PSrividya53