12A Railway Colony is a 2025 Telugu-language suspense thriller written by Anil Vishwanath and directed by Nani Kasaragadda. The film has Allari Naresh & Kamakshi Bhaskarla playing the lead roles while Sai Kumar, Abhirami, Viva Harsha, Getup Srinu, Saddam, Jeevan Kumar, Gagan Vihari, Anish Kuruvilla, Madhumani, & others are seen in important supporting roles. The music is composed by Bheems Ceciroleo, while the film is produced by Srinivasaa Chitturi under Srinivasaa Silver Screen banner.
Story:
Karthik (Allari Naresh) and his group work under a local politician named Tillu (Jeevan Kumar) in Warangal. With the by-elections nearing, Tillu instructs everyone to stay low-profile to avoid police attention. During this quieter period, Karthik tries to impress his neighbour Aaradhana (Kamakshi Bhaskarla), but she remains distant. Aaradhana lives with her mother and is dedicated to pursuing badminton at the national level.
Meanwhile, as police start searching the houses of Tillu’s associates, Tillu orders Karthik to safely hide a suspicious bag. Assuming Aaradhana’s house is empty since no one has seen them for three days, Karthik sneaks in to hide the bag.
Inside, he unexpectedly finds Aaradhana at home—but moments later, he stumbles upon her dead body. Shocked and confused, he begins to question whether the girl he saw was real, a hallucination, or something supernatural. How did Aaradhana die, why was she murdered, and what secret lies behind her death? Needs to be seen in the film.
What about on-screen performances?
Allari Naresh does well in what he has been doing for ages. There is nothing out of the box from him in terms of performance, but he is good in his role, which lacked a decent characterization. His dances in the songs looked off track at places, and it’s high time he should stop doing these unnecessary dance numbers in films that do not demand any songs.
Kamakshi Bhaskarla shines in her part as Aaradhana. Being a Telugu girl, she can pull off all kinds of characters, and she pulls off her mystery role decently. But her characterization lacked proper writing.
Abhirami leaves a mark in a surprising cameo towards the end, but the impact is not to the fullest coz of the weak writing.
Sai Kumar is wasted in a silly cop role, while Viva Harsha, Getup Srinu & Saddam are utterly wasted as the hero’s friends too.
Jeevan Kumar, Gagan Vihari, Anish Kuruvilla, Madhumani, & all others are okay in their half-baked characters.
What about off-screen talents?
The story by Anil Vishwanath is uninteresting and fails to engage us at any point. There is absolutely zero logic in the plot, and the writing looked completely aimless in both halves. Also, the film is titled- 12A Railway Colony, but this colony doesn’t have any major relevance in the plot.
The screenplay also fails big time, as it is written very poorly. None of the characters leave an impact coz of their weak characterizations. Looks like the writing team felt that a couple of twists-one at the interval and one at the end would make up for the slow and tiring storytelling preceding them.
The first half, especially, is the weakest part of the film as it moves forward without any proper direction. It is filled with random scenes where the hero boozes with his friends and talks about the heroine, and an irritating love track that never has love in it. All these scenes felt like mere fillers just to come to the interval twist, which is the only good part of the film.
The second half is slightly better than the first, but here too, the narrative is not so gripping as a thriller needs. Sai Kumar comes in as the investigation officer after the interval, but most of the case is solved by the hero himself. The scenes here lacked coherence and will never keep us on the edge of our seats. The final act is passable with a decent ending twist and a routine lead-up to part 2.
Director Nani Kasaragadda fails big time with his outdated presentation and unengaging narrative. His lack of experience in handling the scenes can be seen in the way both halves are presented and told. Also, he fails to extract the best work even from his cast and the technical crew.
Except for the Kannodili Kalanodili Song, the other songs by Bheems Ceciroleo are weak. In fact, this story doesn’t need any songs, and they feel forced into the narrative. His background score too is unimpressive.
The cinematography by Kushendar Ramesh Reddy is okay, while the editing by Nani Kasaragadda is not up to the mark.
The production values by Srinivasaa Silver Screen are adequate.
What’s Hot?
* Allari Naresh’s Performance
* Kamakshi Bhaskarla’s Performance
* Decent Final Act At The End
* Kannodili Kalanodili Song
* Good Interval Twist & Climax Portions
What’s Not?
* Uninteresting Plot & Weak Screenplay
* Poorly Written Dialogues With A Forced Slang
* Routine & Outdated Characterizations
* Bland & Boring First Half
* Silly Love Track With Poor Scene Designing
* Dragged Out Second Half
* Unwanted Songs & Their Placement
* Mediocre Execution
Verdict: On the whole, 12A Railway Colony is a bland suspense thriller with some very bad writing and ordinary execution. Except for a couple of twists, nothing is interesting in the film. This is definitely one of the weakest films in Allari Naresh’s career, and it’s high time he should focus more on novel scripts and give opportunities to younger filmmakers rather than running after safe projects like this.
Telugubulletin.com Rating: 1.75/5