Gaami Movie Review: An Honest Attempt With A Stunning Cinematic Experience
Gaami is an adventurous drama film which tells the story of an Aghora sets out on an adventure to find a cure to his unknown rare condition in deep of the Himalayas. Aghora Shankar starts the journey along with Dr. Jhanvi on the quest to find the Maali patra (Mushrooms) that blossom every 36 years on the Dhronagiri Mountains in the Himalayas. There will be two other subplots going on parallely which narrates the stories of a Devadasi and a prisoner of a jail-like Lab; eventually attempts to escape. Basically, we are aware of these two parallel plots.
Vishwak Sen plays Shankar, a complete contrast role from his previous films. He surprised with his sad and moody performance and his toned down dialogue delivery. Vishwak completely has fit into the character and the look & costumes of the aghora were aptly done to gel with the tone of the film.
Chandini Chowdary plays Jhanvi, who is shown more as a supporting role than a female lead. She does justice to whatever is given to her and that’s it.
Harika Pedada as Uma, MG Abhinaya as Devadasi Durga does a decent work as per their roles. Elsewhere, Mohammed Samad as CT-333 who perfectly played his role as an adolescent captive who strives for freedom. Rest of the cast has nothing to offer more than given parts.
Director Vidyadhar Kagita makes an assured debut with Gaami, he began this as a crowd-funded independent film but as the shoot and script progressed, it becomes the main stream film with UV Creations joining them. 6 years of passion and hardwork was evident on the big screen. The core idea of Gaami is interesting but also complicated at the same time.
The film directly draws us into the world of Shankar from the start itself. Vidyadhar has beautifully built the world of Gaami, where the Shankar’s world was just one part of the story. He creates another two parallel worlds that are totally different from each other. The idea was to add an extra pinch of interest to the plot.
Coming to technicality, the elements that have gone into creating the world of Gaami, Production Design by Pravalya Duddupudi was so realistic on screen and Cinematography by Vishwanath Reddy & Rampy Nandigam, they are one of the biggest strengths of Gaami. Most of the scenes are more than visual treat to watch. VFX by Sunil Chinta is impressive. Music by Sweekar Agasthi and Naresh Kumaran is equally as great as cinematography, the music literally elevated the scenes with a fresh score. Editing by Raghavendra Thirun could have been more better, sadly some of the scenes felt really abrupt. The writing by Vidyadhar and Pratyush Vatyam was decent because it felt that more work could have been put into the writing, as only Shankar’s story will make us root for him but the other two stories gives no impact. The screenplay makes the normal audience confuse and inspite of where falls at one place in the end but the viewer might have exhausted for it’s slow-placed second half. If proper care taken in writing, then it would have made this film a real EPIC.
Is it worth watching in theatre?
I would say yes, because despite of its minor flaws, Gaami is really must watch for its visual experience. As it is not a regular mainstream Telugu film, watch Gaami with a little patience. It may confuse you and also bore you but it’s absolutely worth waiting for it’s payoffs and rewarding climax.
My Rating: 3/5
