Some movies are bad. Some are terrible. But only a few can be scarring. 4 Letters is just that to say the least. I can’t decide upon what I hated the most in the film. There were just so many things to pick from. The movie 4 Letters is a caricaturish spoof of itself without intending to be.
Here’s what the story supposedly was from what I gathered. Ajay is a uber-rich, super-intelligent engineering student and is pretty much best at everything. Anjali is a violinist and a coward whose mom’s dream is to make her a maestro. Anjali is branwashed to hate rich people by her mother because the latter’s rich husband leaves her after losing everything he has.
Ajay’s father’s sole ambition in life on the other hand is to get his son married to a businessman’s daughter so she along with his son can expand the business. Meanwhile there’s Anupama, a fashion tech student who loves her freedom and is apparently promiscuous. Who Ajay ends up with by the end of the movie over many preachy monologues about many random things is the rest of the film.
Now let’s list out some of the inexplicable moments in the film. There’s drunkard watchman who is obnoxiously loud and breaks into a dance in between scenes without any context. Everyone talks in sexual innuendos all the time; there are entire sequences dedicated to this. Every scene cuts after a literal reference to what the character is saying or doing in the next.
It is a nice screenplay trick usually but if you’re doing it for two and a half hours, it gets annoying. Everyone’s name starts with A. Literally every character. No kidding. Ajay played by Eswar wears clothes that are an assault to the eyes. People talk about rape as a joke. The heroine, who slaps the guy asking her for sexual favours, agrees to “do anything” for the hero after he blackmails her. All while a comedy soundtrack plays in the background. Need I go on?
With all due respect Eswar, who debuted as a hero must have considered learning to move facial muscles, before landing a film. It was painful to watch him. On the contrary watching Tuya Chakraborthy was painful for other reasons. She mimes everything she says like a toddler reciting rhymes with action. Ankitha Maharaana is almost exactly the same but is in great shape.
However, because how the film comes across, you feel disturbed and a little worried for her safety when she dances in a bikini. The several other seasoned artists in the movie couldn’t save the film as they were subjected to the horror that the characters and the movie itself was. The film is called 4 Letters. And after watching it, there are 4 letters that come to mind. It’s one big steaming pile of ... yes, you guessed it.
(srividya.palaparthi@newindianexpress.com)