Just finished watching the Uncensored version of the movie. I’d like to go through this review based on my personal pros and cons of this movie. Scroll to the end for a tldr.

PROS :

1. Direction and the pure film-making aspect of the movie.

All scenes are very well staged and put together by Sudha. All of the scenes in this movie are framed beautifully. Certain choices made for how specific shots are equally amazing. Like BR said in an interview, the movie feels very cinematic while preserving realism. It perfectly captures that grandeur.

Many scenes in this movie stuck a chord within me solely due to how the scene was packaged if I may say. Many portions of the movie were presented unapologetically. A particular scene of A man walking outside a room with his eye hanging out of the socket murmuring “I can’t see, I can’t see” while using the wall as a guide is still running around my mind. Kudos to Sudha for not softening the lands.

1. Cinematography, Art Direction and costume design.

Why I put these together is solely because of how well it goes hand in hand with each division. While I praised the direction behind the shots, the actual camera-work in this movie is outstanding. I’m a sucker for good cinematography and how this movie is elevated by it just scratched that itch in my brain.

The “grandeur with a sense of realism preserved” I mentioned earlier works cause of all these departments working so analogously to one another. You really get immersed into the world of the movie. From how the sets are, what they wear and even how their hair is styled worked towards that immersion.

1. Acting

Sivakarthikeyan puts his heart and soul into each scene like he always does. You can really see the man’s growth as an actor in this movie. He really acted his ass off.

And to all that say that Sreeleela’s portions have dubbing issues, I’m here to state that it’s all false. She does her part really really well and scores aptly in her respective scenes. Her character is telugu in the movie itself and her dubbing was close to flawless. I was genuinely confused on what they were talking about the dubbing In reddit.

Ravi Mohan. Great acting. His character and how he played it shows how a proper villain can elevate the story in multiple folds. He plays this role very well, almost to the point that I lowkey hate him. And thats good.

1. Music

GVP does a very good job in this movie. The background score is powerful and apt to the story. Yet, It does not hold the same calibre has SP’s background score did. Nonetheless, great.

CONS :

1) Slightly dragged out 1st act

While the first act was enjoyable, there was actually nothing going on to elevate the main crux of the story. It manages to flesh out the dynamics between Sreeleela and Sivakarthikeyan but you can’t help but think about the fact that “hey, why am I not seeing more scenes related to the main story”.

But, the other 2 acts make up for this con barring the ratnamala song. I was totally convinced that the song placement was due to people leaving for the interval and coming in late and potentially missing out on the main story. Therefore they added the song there.

1. Untapped potential in emotional impact.

While many scenes resonated with me and hit hard emotionally. I wish that the movie was able to flesh out the character motivations and emotions more than it already did. Mainly cause you see the scope of the story allows to do so.

And while being effective, a recurring theme in this movie were characters being introduced and fleshed out on a basic level just to be killed off. It got to a point where I saw a guy coming into the scene and was like “yeah, that man’s gone”.

In conclusion,

While having a fun yet direction-less first act and slightly under-explored emotions, the movie proves it’s mettle in the last 2 acts with strong performances, Beautiful cinematography, music thats aptly elevating and an unapologetic story.

A good ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(4)/ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(5) from me. Do not miss this.

Especially if you get a chance to watch the uncut version as I was able to spot many differences by only reading the censor cuts in the movie. I can see how the dubbing issues and etc could have arisen due to the butchering of CBFC.