Murder Review – Actors shine in this middling drama

Controversial filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma often makes headlines for making movies based on real-life incidents. His latest movie, Murder is vaguely based on the sensational honour killing in Miryalaguda. The film is out in theaters now and here is our review of it.

Story:

Madhava Rao (Srikanth Iyengar) is a well-settled businessman who holds a respectable position in the society. He and his wife Vanaja(Gayatri Bhargavi) pamper their only daughter, Namratha(Sahithi) right from a young age and give her everything she asks for. At a time when Madhava Rao is in search of a good match to his daughter, she says she is in love with a guy named Praveen and wishes to marry him. Madhava Rao is enraged with his daughter’s proposal and develops hatred towards her and Pranay after they get secretly married. Madhava Rao plots a cruel and inhumane plan to end the relationship between his daughter and Praveen, which in turn leads to serious consequences.

What about on-screen performances?

Regardless of RGV’s argument that Murder is not based on the infamous honour killing of Pranay in Miryalaguda, this film’s plot is extremely similar to the incident and its backstory. Srikanth Iyengar as a caring and overprotective father delivers an outstanding performance. His subtle emotions and body language perfectly suit the role. Sahithi, who plays the daughter’s role is almost equally good. She carries the intense and demanding role with good conviction. These two breathe life to the story and their performance is the main asset to the film. Even the rest of the star cast succeed in getting the emotional connect right.

What about off-screen talents?

The director, Anand Chandra picks a story that is known to almost everyone in the twin Telugu states. In order to pull it off, he needed to get his casting right and he does it quite well. Srikanth Iyengar and Sahithi shoulder the film and do a great job. Anand infuses a great deal of emotions in the story and manages to make the audience feel the pain and agony that the characters went through. However, he overplays the emotion card at times and it results in melodrama. A few scenes are unnecessarily lengthy and high on spooky emotions. At times, the viewer might feel like watching a typical Telugu serial.

DSR’s background score is top notch and he does particularly well in emotional sequences. Also, Jagadeesh’s shady visuals emulate the vibe of the film. Srikanth Patnaik’s editing should have been crispier.

What’s Hot?

Srikanth Iyengar and Sahithi’s performances
Father-daughter emotinal episodes
DSR’s background score

What’s Not?

A few intriguing aspects of real-life story go missing
Weak narrative
Melodramatic scenes
Run-time
Predictable climax

Verdict:

Murder mainly focuses on the emotional journey that parents go through when their kids acts against their interests when it comes to marriage. Certain aspects of the real-life story have been distorted. The end point is that the lead actors shine bright in this middling emotional drama.

Watch or Not?: Too big of an ask to watch it in theaters. But you might give it a try on OTT platforms.

TeluguBulletin.com Ratting: 2/5