Director Ajay Bhupathi’s ‘Mangalavaaram’ is packed with twists and turns but the moody thriller never turns into a soulful drama that it aims to be, despite a few good performances
Director Ajay Bhupathi’s Telugu period thriller Mangalavaaram (Tuesday) had the potential to be a riveting mystery that discusses faith, relationships and morality. The writing had the scope to build complex, morally ambiguous characters in whose journeys we stay invested. The film, which has also been dubbed in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi, achieves this only partly. The rustic period drama relies heavily on the backstory of its central character Shailaja (Payal Rajput) and a handful of twists and turns, some of which are easy to guess if you notice the clues. The music by Ajaneesh Loknath (of Kantara fame) and the fiery reddish-orange visual palette by cinematographer Dasaradhi Shivendra play a major role in propping up the film in some of its weakest portions.
