Vedha is an Indian Kannada language action drama film directed by A Harsha. The film is dubbed into Telugu as Shiva Vedha and stars Shiva Rajkumar and Ghanavi Laxman in the lead roles and Umashree, Aditi Sagar, Raghu Shivamogga, Jaggapa, Cheluvaraj, Bharath Sagar, Prasanna, Vinay, Sanjeev and Kuri Prathap in supporting roles. The music is composed by Arjun Janya and is produced by Geeta Shiva Rajkumar under Geeta Pictures banner and Zee Studios.
Story:
The plot of Vedha revolves around Vedha (Shiva Rajkumar) and his daughter Kanaka (Aditi Sagar), who have a tragic past and are on a killing spree. While they are being chased by a cop named Rama (Veena Ponnappa), they always tend to manage their escape in the nick of time. Why are they killing people? What is the reson behind it? What happened in their past? Will Rama be able to stop the killings forms the rest of the narrative of the story.
What about on-screen performances?
Shiva Rajkumar comes up with a fierce performance as Vedha. He showcases good emotions in a larger than life role as a man who has a sad & tragic past. The way he danced in a couple of songs and has done all his action stunts will be a treat for the masses.
Ganavi Laxman is excellent as Pushpa, the hero’s wife. Her role has got multiple shades and she excels in all of them. While she looks cute as the village house wife in the first half, she takes a complete U-turn and goes all out with her action avatar in the second half.
Shwetha Chengappa too leaves a mark as Paari, the sex worker. She does her bold act perfectly and also has her share in the action scenes as well.
Aditi Sagar who plays the hero’s daughter Kanaka is impressive in her part. She gets a major action scene at the interval point and she pulled it off effortlessly.
Veena Ponnappa is pretty decent in her cop role while the rest of the supporting actors like Raghu Shivamogga, Lasya Nagaraj, Jaggapa, Cheluvaraj, Prasanna, Vinay Bidappa, Sanjeev, and Kuri Prathap are okay in their limited roles.
What about off-screen talents?
The story by Harsha is a routine revenge drama that tackles a sensitive subject of child sexual assault and how a father along with her daughter go on to kill the culprits.
The screenplay is not at all impressive. There are many stretched-out sequences that bore you big time in both the halves. Even the comedy episodes and the family track look very cliched to the core.
The direction by Harsha is pretty ordinary. Though he has peppered the film with massy fights and a strong message, the narrative he choose doesn’t do complete justice to them. Also, the amount of slow-mo shots should have been reduced and the violence quotient in the film must have been restricted.
The camera work by Swamy J. Gowda is brilliant. All the action episodes are shot beautifully.
The thumping background score by Arjun Janya is one of the biggest strengths of the film. Though his songs in Telugu do not click as expected.
Deepu S. Kumar’s edit is quiet poor. Almost every long sequence in the film could have been a lot crisper.
Special mention to the action choreography in the film and the production values are first rate.
What’s Hot?
- Shiva Rajkumar & Aditi Sagar’s Performances
- Ganavi Laxman & Shwetha Chengappa’s Performances
- Background Score
- Cinematography
- Production Values
What’s Not?
- Routine Revenge Story
- Too Much Violence
- Dragged Out Sequences
- Lethagic Screenplay
- Lengthy Run Time
- Poor Comedy/Family Tracks
- Editing
- Songs (In Telugu)
Verdict: On a whole, Shiva Rajkumar’s 125th film is not completely entertaining for the Telugu audiences. Though the family emotions & the massy fights might work a bit for the B & C centres, the routine revenge story & overly done violence in the film makes it a below-par affair overall!!
Telugubulletin.com Rating: 1.5/5