Vichakshana Review

It begins with about 5 minutes of attempted storytelling before a descent into an interminable bout of singing and dancing. The song is actually not quite bad. You just don't want the female vocalist's screech assaulting your ears again. Especially after Sandhya theatre's sound system transforms it into the organic equivalent of a scratch against a chalk board.

Then, you are taken into the bungalow of a corrupt politician, where he does what corrupt politicians do, following which the scene is cut to the hero and heroine, who've apparently decided to be in love forever already.

As we keep watching, you see that this improvisational mode of relationshipping isn't exactly a one-off for this film. Srujana (Padmini) and Virat (Dheeraj) fall in love in about 5 minutes. Srujana's parents fall for Virat in 2, Virat's friends for Srujana over the course of yet another screechy song, and Virat's parents for Srujana over one hello outside a police station.

While there seems to be a readymade happy ending here, the few trapped in the theatre to actually watch the film cannot possibly be so lucky as to have the makers take the first way out. So, we have a conflict. You guessed right. It involves the politician from before. Turns out, one of Virat's friends works for the man and has been privy to one too many secrets.

Ooh, that's plenty meaty. We have a powerful villain and a determined hero. Wait. It doesn't stop there. Yet another friend's parents commit suicide. Reason? A fortune lost to corruption. Did we mention? That encounter at the police station involved a parking ticket evasion, right after Virat refused to pay a monumental bribe to secure a job.

You see where this is going.

So, a motley gang of 7 resolves to bring the world to its knees. Meanwhile, our knees are turning to mush at the tedium of their righteous rage.

For all its good intentions, Vichakshana has about half an original idea in all of its potpourri of ideas. Not a single dialogue sounds like real people would speak it. And there is way too much dialoguing. When, oh, when are our directors gonna stop churning out cinema that can double as sermons in a trice?

Dheeraj wears the expression of a bauble head, and the voice of one with half a tongue. Padmini tries, which is so very not enough to make up for her own and everybody else's lack of thespic skills.

Also, an endless parade of songs is probably not the best way to pad a movie. Especially when these songs show up when hero meets heroine, when heroine meets friends, when hero's sister spies hero and heroine canoodling (really? they needed a song for that?), when hero and heroine decide to get married, when hero and heroine stare randomly at each other, and 3 other times. And this is just in the first half.

The production values are very reminiscent of that nightmare decade for cinema, the '90s. The camera work extends every scene by 5 minutes, what with all the hands and the eyes that needed focusing on. The editing should have left out that plethora of 5 minutes.

To be very honest, Vichakshana is not as bad as some of the cinematic experiences this writer has gone through over the last month. However, nor is it much better.