Drushyakavyam Review

The writer-director (Bellam Ramakrishna Reddy) seems to have conceived Drushya Kavyam in a moment of spiritual excitement.  The Annamayya leitmotif is pious, but when viewed as a story, this film falls flat.

Flautist Akhil (Ram Karthik) and mellifluous singer Abhinaya (Kashmira Kulkarni) fall in love while in college.  They get married soon after college and the film takes a five year leap in no time.  Akhil wants to move to Europe for two years, but the lovely daughter Ananya (played by Baby Hasini) wishes her father doesn't go abraod.  At this point of time, a series of mysterious incidents take place in the palatial house the three live.  Despite the daughter's gentle protests and cuddly-cute requests, Akhil leaves for Europe.  Madhu Nandan, his friend and closest acquaintance of the family, learns that Akhil died while on the way to airport.  Confusingly, Akhil continues to communicate with his wife and the daughter.  What is the mystery of it all?  The second half answers it.

It seems that the director conceived a surreal-spiritual idea to begin with and later, corrupted by horror-comedies that are in vogue, blighted the idea beyond recognition.

The screenplay leaves a hint in the first half and until the last few minutes, the story is comfortably abandoned in favour of parodies involving Prudhviraj, Chandra, Shanni, and Sathyam Rajesh.  In a supposedly comedy sequence, benign kid-devils deal with these comedians with kid gloves as Prudhviraj helplessly sings Annamayya's kirtans.

Toward the climax, the film doesn't think of banking on the thriller element, having kissed a goodbye to even the horror element.

As the climax portions unravel the suspense, you are aghast to watch a hyper-relaxed character, and an editor who behaves like an investigator.  What is the role of the two prominent characters?  They are reduced to such bystanders here.

How is it possible to be funnily scared when a best friend died hours ago?  How is it possible to be funnily scared when the scare is being caused by the victims of that tragedy - victims who are oblivious to the tragedy?

The narration is peculiar.  The heroine's parents die in an accident.  'Nanati bathuku', Annamayya's kirtana, follows.  Follows party time and a duet in which the hero kisses his girl quite urgently.  A creative first night where our hyper-romantic heroine unveils an aesthetic gift follows.  Follows a song, not to forget.  The film takes a five year leap.  Follows romance while watering the garden as the child and Madhu Nandan are away!  Is this why they named it Drushya Kavyam?

As for performances, Kashmira Kulkarni has a good screen presence.  RJ Kajal's dubbing for her is apt.  Ram Karthik looks good, but has no grace of a hero.  Madhu Nandan gets an extended role, which is frittered away by lame character-etching.

Pranam Kamlakhar makes a mark with his music.  The songs are good to hear.  The cinematography is another asset.  VFX is good at two places.  All in all, this one is good visually.

Verdict:  While visually the film scores marks, the story is half-baked and the film, outrageously inconclusive.  There comes a point when you stop waiting for the climax as you don't think the film will have a tail.