Maha Samudram Review: Partly gripping love action drama

Maha Samudram has an intriguing star cast. Sharwanand, Siddharth, Aditi Rao Hydari, and Anu Emmanuel play lead roles in the film. Here’s our review of the Ajay Bhupathi directorial.

Story: Arjun(Sharwanand) and Vijay (Siddharth) are good friends. The latter is in a relationship with Maha(Aditi Rao). Following a series of fateful incidents, Vijay flees the town and no one known about his whereabouts. What happens after Vijay returns after around about 4 year? What’s the story with Maha?

What about on-screen performances?

Sharwanand and Siddharth run the show with their splendid performances. They have bagged meaty roles and they make full use of it. Aditi Rao gets an author backed role too and she delivers an impressive act. Anu Emmanuel makes a brief appearance. Rao Ramesh and Jagapathi Babu are class acts and they breathe life into their role. The casting is bang on point.

What about off-screen talents?

The director Ajay Bhupathi picks an intense subject and narrates his story through the central characters. He excels as far as characterisations go. The first half is comparatively good and it ends on a high, thanks to a brilliantly executed action-oriented interval bang. But Ajay loses grip in the second half and that takes a toll on the overall movie watching experience.

The background score is of very good quality but there is nothing brilliant about the songs. In fact, the songs turn out to be speed bumps in the latter half. Cinematography is top class. Editing could have been better as there is a fair bit of lag in the second half.

What’s Hot?

• Strong characterisations
• Background score and cinematography

What’s Not?

• Stretched out and lacklustre second half
• Uneven screenplay
• Conflict point not strong enough

Verdict: Maha Samudram really is a tale of two halves. While the opening half is comparatively more appealing with a few engaging sequences and a well-shot interval block, the latter half loses the steam and progresses along on a predictable note. The film can be termed an average watch.

Telugubulletin.com Rating: 2.75/5