Atharva Review: Below-par Crime Thriller

Atharva is a Telugu-language crime thriller which is written and directed by Mahesh Reddy. The film has Karthik Raju & Simran Choudhary in lead roles while Ayraa Jain, Arvind Krishna, Kabir Duhan Singh, Kalpika Ganesh, G.Marimuthu, Anand, Kiran Macha, Shiva Kumar, Vijaya Rama Raju, Gagan Vihari & others playing important characters. The music is composed by Sricharan Pakala and the film is produced by Subhash Nuthalapati under Peggo Entertainments banner.

Story:

Dev Atharva Karna (Karthik Raju) is a young guy who lives in a village and dreams of getting into the police department despite battling asthma. After a few tries, he joins the department in the clues team. He also falls in love with a reporter Nitya (Simran Choudhary) who is also his college junior. One day, there is a gruesome murder of Tollywood heroine Joshni (Ayraa Jain) and her boyfriend Shiva (Shiva Kumar). How is Atharva related to this murder? Who killed Joshni? Will Atharva be able to unravel the murder mystery? Needs to be seen in the film.

What about on-screen performances?

Karthik Raju is very ordinary with his performance in the film as Atharva. He is fine in a few parts and goes overboard in a few places. He still needs to improve a lot with his basics in acting, dialogue delivery, and body language.

Simran Choudhary is pretty decent as Nitya. But her role is pretty half-baked and it never offers her a chance to shine on screen.

Ayraa Jain is okay in her limited role as Joshni while Shiva Kumar does well in his part as Joshni’s boyfriend.

Arvind Krishna & Kalpika Ganesh who are seen on screen after a brief gap, also get forgettable roles that do not have any substance.

Kiran Macha of ‘Mem Famous’ fame is poor with his act. He looks very casual with his body language and is dull in a few scenes.

Kabir Duhan Singh, G.Marimuthu, Anand, Vijaya Rama Raju, Gagan Vihari & others are just about fine in their respective supporting roles.

What about off-screen talents?

The story by Mahesh Reddy is highly predictable and very routine. Except for the hero playing as an officer in the clues team, there is nothing much fresh in the script. Though there a few good twists towards the end, they never amaze us nor keep us excited. The dialogues are nothing great too.

The screenplay also follows the familiar crime thriller tropes with regular scenes that lack novelty. The core idea has got all the trappings of a good murder mystery but that doesn’t translate as expected with the way the script is written. One more biggest minus of the film is filling the plot with some unnecessary comedy scenes in between serious crime scenes.

Director Mahesh Reddy presentation and his narration never captivates the audience. There are many loose ends in the film and being a crime thriller, the narrative should keep us on the edge of the seat but sadly, that never happens with this film. Even the curiosity to know who the killer is isn’t properly maintained till the end.

The background music by Sricharan Pakala is the only big plus of the film. He does a good job with his score like he always does with thriller films. But his songs are not up to the mark.

The cinematography by Charan Madhavaneni is good and the edit by SB Uddhav needed to be a bit more shaper.

The production values by Peggo Entertainments are good.

What’s Hot?

* Few Twists
* Background Score
* Karthik Raju
* Cinematography

What’s Not?

* Poor Writing & Direction
* Forgettable Songs
* Unnecessary Comedy Scenes

Verdict: On the whole, Atharva is a below-par crime thriller that never works in any aspect. Being an investigative thriller, it doesn’t keep you engaged even for a bit with the writing and the narration.

Telugubulletin.com Rating: 2/5