Review: 2.5/5

Cast: Harshavardhan Rane , Avantika ,Sushma , Nandini Rai and others

Directed by : Neelakanta

Produced by : Madhura Sridhar, MVK

Banner :Shirdi Sai Combines

Music by : Sekhar Chandra

Release Date : 2014-08-02

Maaya Movie Review

Acclaimed director Neelakanta has been running through lean phase in his career in recent times. He chose to direct a thriller to put an end to his bad run. Did he succeed in doing so?

What is it about?

Meghana (Avantika) has Extra Sensory Percetion (ESP), which means she can foresee the future. She sees a vision of her lover Siddharth (Harshavardhan) killing his fiancee and Meghana’s friend Pooja (Sushma). Meghana tries hard to save her friend from Siddharth. But there is an unforeseen surprise in store for her.

Performances:

Avantika:

Avantika got a dream role on debut. She got an author backed role to essay in her very first film and that is a big ask for a newcomer. She did her best to match up to it. But she could only do half justice to her character. We can’t blame her entirely for it. Director should have trained up her for this role before going for the shoot.

Harshavardhan Rane:

Harshavardhan has good looks and decent screen presence. He usually plays second fiddle to heroine and this film is no different. However he got some scope to perform in the second half of this film and he did alright.

Others:

Sushma is okay in the final scene. Nandini Rai is fine in her brief role. Nagababu, Venu and Jhansi played the supporting roles.

Technicalities:    

Direction:

Neelakanta has always tried to do different films from the routine masala fare. His efforts to do a different film could be seen. But the half baked script lets him down. He failed as a director as the film hardly engages you until the final scene.

Others:

Cinematography is decent for a low budget film. Dark lighting schemes helped to keep the mood intact. Music is weak. None of the songs are impressive. Editing is very bad in the first hour. It is slightly better in the second half.

Thumbs Up:

• Concept

Thumbs Down:

• Weak Narration

Analysis:

The concept is not entirely new to our audience. If you are exposed to world cinema, there are many movies that have dealt with this ESP concept. Despite having an interesting premise, director messes it up with poor narration. There are many logical errors and loose ends in the film.

First half of the film is absolutely boring. Director should have used the ESP concept to good effect to keep the audience glued to the screen. Instead he focused on poor romantic track that is a big yawn. There is a nice twist at the interval point and the film gets better in second half. It could have been way better, but Neelakanta didn’t execute his idea to perfection.

In spite of being illogical the climax sequence is done well. That is the only saving grace of this thriller that has no punch. Audience who watch Hollywood thrillers will laugh at this attempt that is dealt with age old narrative techniques. Thriller movies must be engaging the audience and keep them guessing all the way. Only such thrillers could leave an impact at the box office as well. Maaya fails on many levels and ends up as a below average thriller with very few positives. Let alone Hollywood films, we have seen better thrillers in Telugu and Maaya is a very substandard film compared to them. If the makers of this film had ESP, probably they wouldn’t have made this movie. Who would want to risk their money on a failed attempt? To sum it up, watch Maaya only if you have nothing better to do.

Verdict: Climax Clicks Well!