Movie: Savyasachi
Cast: Naga Chaitanya, Niddhi Agerwal, Bhumika Chawla, Vennela Kishore
Direction: Chandoo Mondeti
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
The winning combination of director Chandoo Mondeti and actor Naga Chaitanya (of Premam fame) have arrived with Savyasachi, an ambitious commercial entertainer that comes with a fascinating storyline. The film draws its plot from Vanishing Twin Syndrome where the disappeared twin lives inside his brother and shows his dominance through his brother’s left hand, especially when he gets ecstatic or annoyed.
The film tells the story of a high-spirited Vikram Aditya (Naga Chaitanya), who leads a peaceful and content life with his sister (Bhumika Chawla), brother-in-law (Bharath Reddy) and his niece. He is very much attached to the little girl and believes that she’s the reincarnation of his mother. But fate suddenly throws up some unexpected twist in his life and the crestfallen Vikram Aditya believes in his intuition that there is more to it than meets the eye. His hunch is proved right and there is a demonic man, Arun (R Madhavan) behind his ordeal. The ambidexterity of Vikram Aditya becomes the fulcrum of Savyasachi. Chandoo spends way too much time in the first hour on set up and building the lead characters before it gets to the meat of the story. You may feel drained seeing non-stop song and dance in this contrived hour. The second hour, as expected, has enough to chew on, but the story lacks the required adrenaline rush of an edge-of-the-seat thriller, instead falls prey to the predictability and melodrama.
The novel premise barely drums up excitement and the film is all marred by a tepid narrative which took the conventional route with cliches. The plot is plagued with logic issues, and there’s virtually no battle of wits and suspense in the cat-and-mouse chase between villain and hero. It’s common for a few films to suffer from some distractions, but Chandoo, this time, misses some tricks in his book and showed his inability to deliver a solid entertainer like Premam.
As for the performances, Naga Chaitanya sinks his teeth into this character and makes it watchable for the most part. He plays it straight from his heart in the emotional and the action sequences. But he needs to work on facial expressions. Niddhi Agerwal is a perfect foil for Chay’s energetic performance. She shines with her vibrant dance moves and adds panache to her character. Rao Ramesh and Bhumika are adequate in their brief roles. Unlike Aravind Swamy (Dhruva) and Arjun Sarja (Abhimanyudu), Madhavan doesn’t quite make for an evil genius, and his character, with its inevitable plot twists, seems conventional and exaggerated. He fails to pack a punch in this poorly-etched role. The comedy whipped by Vennela Kishore and Satya bring in a few smiles. But the much-hyped Subhadra Parinayam episode is, of course, the incredibly distracting spoof with plenty of double entendres. Such regressive and old-fashioned bits stick out like a sore thumb and make the narrative drag its feet in the second hour. MM Keeravani’s music and background score pass the muster, while visuals by Yuvaraj are a pleasure to the eye.Overall, Savyasachi is a film that offers too little from a director, who is capable of so much. By the time the film’s over, viewers may feel like vanishing from their seats.
— Murali Krishna CH
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@newindianexpress @onlymurali