BOTTOM LINE
Logic Kills Magic
OUR RATING
2/5
CENSOR
U Certified, 2 hours 15 minutes
What is the film Darshakudu about?
Love story of a director Mahesh(Ashok) who is always looking for inspiration in real life and fitting them logically into the movie, he makes. How Mahesh, a logical director balances real and reel emotion is what the film is all about?
How is Ashok’s performance?
Ashok is bland and has zero screen presence. His just goes through his dialogues as a machine would without any emotion in it. For all the talk about emotions, there is absolutely no emotional connection.
Direction By Hari Prasad Jakkani?
It is a complicated movie to execute and despite best efforts by Hariprasad, one has to say he fails. It is not a failure as director, he has done what can be done with such lackluster lead. The problem is because of the writing which goes on an on explaining all the possible emotions in a Telugu movie, logically.
An emotion cases to exist once the logic behind the emotion is being explained. It is the biggest flaw in the movie. There are good scenes throughout the duration but the writing explaining in detail how to get the emotion and what to expect from it, takes down the whole experience.
It is in the second half the real crux of the film lies. There are scenes back to back in second half carrying the required punch but the lead actor and the choice taken by writer to logically explain all the logics behind the emotions, takes away the impact. If one feels there is an overuse of ‘logic’ in our review at this point, remember this is nothing compared to what one would witness in the actual movie. If Kumari 21f benefitted from Sukumar Writings, then Darshakudu fails due to it.
Eesha Rabba and others?
Eesha once again chooses a part that offers her scope to emote. She is fine in whatever little she gets. She is reason the movie gets some depth of sorts in emotional scenes. Kedar Shankar is believable in his role as a producer. Sudarshan once again gets meaty role in Sukumar production.
Music and other departments?
Music by Sai Kartheek is alright. The background score is not fresh but fine. Technically like the previous Sukumar production, Darshakudu is also well mounted for a small film. Editing is neat. Dialogues by Sukumar are good but over indulgent.
Highlights?
Basic concept
Eesha
Few scenes with meta references
Drawbacks?
Terrible Lead
Logical explanation
Weak Climax
Alternative Take
There are few films made in the movies backdrop but by and large they haven’t been successful. An alternative would be something like I Hate Love Stories which has a similar setup but slightly different in terms of approach.
Did I enjoy it?
Very few parts
Will you recommend it?
With huge reservations
Darshakudu Review by Siddartha Toleti
