Film: Urvi
Director: Pradeep Varma
Cast: Sruthi Harisharan, Shraddha Srinath and Shweta Pandit
Rating: 2.5/5
There are films that stoke the audience’s curiosity with their trailers, but the final screening will fail to meet expectations. Such is the film, Urvi.
Written and directed by Pradeep Varma, the film is depressing but presents a new way of telling a story. The negative spin on sex trade isn’t easy to explore and convey, and director seems to have done it for a niche audience. This 2 hour 31 minute film is long and preachy, and takes an unflinching look at the world of brothels and how young girls are trapped into doing this trade. Well, these innoncent girls find a way out and how they end up wreaking vengeance forms the rest of the story.
Though Pradeep has an unusual story, the narration is grim with little relief in the the screenplay. But he seems to have not decided on his audience and therefore his effort is wasted. There is, for example, a painting as the backdrop. It is an abstract filled with colours but still conveys a dullness of spirit.
There are intense moments, like with Rashmi, a school girl residing at the brothel who commits suicide. Then there is when Devergunda (Achyuth Kumar) who deals in sex trade encounters his own daughter. And when Daisy shoots down her Madam Bobby, and when the reason behind Asha killing her boyfriend is revealed.
The movie redeems itself with good performances by all the artistes and that includes Sruthi Hariharan, Shraddha Srinath and Shweta Pandit and the supporting cast including Bhavani Prakash, Achyuth Kumar, Prabhu Mundkar, Madhukar Niyogi,Vasuki Vaibhav and Janvi Jyothi.
The tone of the film had to be different, because it is set in a brothel, but the picturisation by Anand Sundaresha and music by Manoj Geore fail to create that. Though Urvi is realistic, it fails to strike an emotional chord.