BOTTOM LINE
Amateur And Forgettable
RATING
1/5
Story, Screenplay, Director: Akella V Krishna
Cast: Jagapathi babu, Laya, Hrithika Srinivas, Srinivas Avasarala, Ravi Varma
Music Director: Karthik B. Kodakandla
DOP: Chota K. Naidu
Editor: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Producer: Kishore Naidu Chirumamilla, Tammareddy Bharadwaj
Presented By: Charita Chitra
Production Company: Charita Chitra
Related Links: Trailer
What Is the Film About?
Nivas lives happily with his family. However, the entire family dies in an unfortunate accident. Yogi (Jagapathi Babu) is a renowned surgeon who unexpectedly finds Amuda (Hrithika) unconscious in a car. He joins her in the hospital and helps her recover.
What happens when Amuda is obsessed with Dr Yogi for all the affection shown towards her? How are they connected to Nivas? The overall story is how the track involving Amuda, Yogi, and his family ends.
Performances
Jagapati Babu gets a role that is a walk in the park for him. He does the routine without breaking a sweat and moves on.
Laya doesn’t have much to do in the first half. Although she does finally have something in the second half, there is hardly anything worth remembering.
Hrithika gets the best role out of the three. It is her movie, actually. She has the entire film to herself to make an impression, and yet she fails to land the act correctly. It’s mostly to do with how it’s executed, but there aren’t any glimpses either in the act where we could see a spark of actual potential.
Analysis
Akella V Krishna directs Vadala. It is a simple, straightforward thriller with an obsessive character driving the plot.
It doesn’t take time at all to realise the tacky making and visual quality of the movie. The opening segment makes things so obvious. The world establishment, the dialogues and various character intros, everything gives an off feeling.
Things don’t improve as more is revealed about the characters. But one can give them a pass if the story itself has some meat. There is none.
Vadala is a thriller, and for a thriller, the biggest sacrilege is predictability. We shouldn’t know where things are headed, or alternatively, there should be some surprise thrown at predictable turns. None of it happens here, and before we realise, we are already at the interval.
Hardly anything exciting happens in the first half that could make one look forward to the narrative post-intermission.
However, while nothing exciting indeed happens, the second half at least has some drama within the predictable flow. The drama could have given the proceedings some grip, but it is terribly handled.
The whole thing finally leads to the climax. But once the flashback is revealed, there is no surprise left at all. The only thing of note here is the jumbled timeline. It has worked in a few narratives in the past, but it doesn’t here, as it leads to messiness rather than intrigue.
There is a twist connecting to the flashback. But after the way the proceedings have been presented up to that point, it doesn’t look convincing at all and leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
By the time the movie ends, one is happy to see that it has ended. It’s the kind of movie one forgets as soon as they leave the theatre.
Overall, Vadala is a thriller that offers zero thrills. The basic premise also hardly has anything exciting. It’s just a waste of resources to deliver a dumb, dull, and amateurish thriller.
Performances by Other Actors
Apart from the main leads, we have Ravi Varma playing a police officer investigating the case, and Srinivas Avasarala is in a forgettable part. Neither gets anything to leave a mark. The rest of the cast hardly registers.
Music and Other Departments?
Karthik B Kodakindla’s music might be the only aspect, technically, that falls into a mildly decent category. The background score is okay considering the rest of the work. The cinematography doesn’t give the movie a big-screen vibe. The editing adds to the messy feel with the patchy cuts. The writing feels non-existent.
Highlights?
Some Parts Of Second Half
Drawbacks?
Tacky Execution
Predictability
Editing
Zero Emotional Connection
Writing
Did I Enjoy It?
No
Will You Recommend It?
No
Vadala Movie Reviewed by Kalyan
