Review : Atharva – Only for a few scenes

Atharva, starring Karthik Raju and Simran Choudhary has hit the screens today. Let’s see how the film is.

Story:

Deva Atharva Karna (Karthik Raju) tries to become a cop, but his asthma issue doesn’t let him achieve his goal. A person suggests to Atharva that there is a bright future in the Clues Team. Atharva gets a job in the Clues Team, and with his analytical skills, he solves many cases. One day, Atharva meets his college crush, Nithya (Simran), at a crime scene. Slowly, Nithya gets close to Atharva. Nithya introduces her friend and Tollywood actress Joshni Huparikar (Ayraa Jain) to Atharva. One day, Joshni is found dead in her flat along with her boyfriend, Siva. Police believe that Siva shot Joshni and then killed himself. The rest of the film is about solving the murder mystery.

Plus Points:

There have been multiple crime thrillers, but what’s distinct about Atharva is that it showcases the work and importance of Clues Team when a crime takes place. The protagonist solves a few cases after joining the job, and these scenes are gripping in the first hour.

Karthik Raju gave a decent performance in the film. Simran Choudhary is fine in a limited role. Ayraa Jain did a neat job. The first half of the film moves on at a great pace. Though the momentum dips slightly, the film gets back on track again with the murder of Joshni’s character.

Minus Points:

While the first half is decent, the second half runs into issues. The basic problem here is that everything gets resolved very quickly, and hence, the interest factor is missing. The movie is meant to be subtle, given its subject nature, but after a point in time, it becomes loud and over the top with unnecessary elements of heroism.

The dialogues are bad, and especially the lengthy monologue in the first half feels out of place completely. Also, the warning scenes appear routine due to dialogues. Atharva is an example of how unnecessary songs can badly affect a film. The lyrics are terrible, and the movie would have been far better without those songs.

The motto of the murders is revealed at the end. To show this, the makers used stock footage, which looked pretty bad on the screen. The makers revealed that there is a sequel to the film, but the movie doesn’t have promising cliffhangers to wait for the second part. If at all there is a sequel idea, the climax needs to be really good, or else it will act against the film big time.

Technical Aspects:

The music scored by Sricharan Pakala is decent, but due to bad lyrics, the songs will cause boredom. Charan Madhavaneni’s cinematography is appealing. The editing team did a decent job. More care should have been taken regarding the dialogues part. The production values are fine,

Coming to the director, Mahesh Reddy, he didn’t succeed in coming up with an interesting narrative in the second half. Despite the boring love track and unnecessary songs, the first hour was engaging, but in order to showcase the heroism, the screenplay loses its grip in the last hour. Kabir Duhan Singh’s character is not established properly.

Verdict:

On the whole, Atharva is a half-baked suspense thriller that showcases the importance of the clues department. Despite flaws, the first half was interesting, with gripping moments, but things go haywire once the second half starts. Too much emphasis on heroism, bad songs, and a weak second half are the drawbacks of Atharva.

123telugu.com Rating: 2.5/5

Reviewed by 123telugu Team