'Yashoda' Movie Review
Cast: Samantha, Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar, rnUnni Mukundan, Rao Ramesh, Sampath, Murali Sharma, Shatru, Divya rnSripada, Kalpika Ganesh and others.
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: Sukumar
Producer: Shivalenka Prasad
Dialogues: Pulagam Chinna Narayana, Challa Bhagyalakshmi
Story - Screenplay - Direction: Hari and Harish
Samantharn is one of the very few heroines in Tollywood who can manage to bring rnpeople into the theatres just by herself. After impressing the audience rnwith movies like 'U Turn' and 'Oh! Baby', she has arrived with another rnfemale-oriented film titled 'Yashoda'. Directed by Tamilian director duorn Hari and Harish, this movie is a complete thriller and generated good rnbuzz with this promotional content. Let's dive into the review and find rnout how the movie is.
Story:
Yashoda (Samantha) is a rnmiddle class girl who accepts to become pregnant through surrogacy as rnshe is in need of money. He signs an agreement with a big company and rngoes to a mysterious building in order to stay there right from getting rnpregnant to delivering a child. She experiences some unique situations rnthere and realizes that there is something wrong going on. Women who arern ready to deliver the babies go missing one after the other. Yashoda rnrealizes that there is a big mystery behind this. What is it? What does rnYashoda do to put an end to it? The answers to these questions form the rnrest of the story.
Analysis:
Do you remember Ravi Babu's rn'Amaravathi' starring Tarak Ratna as the villain and Bhumika in a key rnrole? Just like Ravi Babu's 'Anasuya', 'Amaravathi' is also an rninteresting thriller that is made on a different concept. While it was rngood, the concept of the villain attacking the pregnant women did not gorn down well with audience. Despite the directorial brilliance, the rnhard-hitting scenes which revolved around pregnant women were hard to rnaccept at that time. The plot point is the main reason for the failure rnof 'Amaravathi' despite being a good thriller. Reminding this movie, rnTamil directors Hari and Harish came up with 'Yashoda'. There are no bigrn comparisons between both the movies but they revolve around pregnant rnwomen. The plotline is quite different in 'Yashoda' too and it stuns yourn many times. Even in this movie, the hard-hitting narration around such arn sensitive subject proved to be a bit difficult. Despite succeeding in rnkeeping the viewers guessing, the 'Yashoda' team failed to convince the rnaudience. With pluses and minuses being in the same level, it hard to rncall 'Yashoda' successful but it is definitely not a failure.
Rightrn from the teaser, it has been made clear that 'Yashoda' is a film made rnon a different concept and has strong content. Hari and Harish who made rncontent-oriented films in Tamil till date, did the same in Telugu too. rnThey should be appreciated for choosing this point and doing a lot of rnhard work during the scripting stage. But there did not entirely succeedrn in narrating it in a convincing manner. We are often seeing celebritiesrn becoming parents through surrogacy nowadays. With Nayanthara and rnVignesh Shivan becoming parents in the same way recently and a lot of rncontroversy happening around it, the concept of 'Yashoda' looks rncontemporary. People expected the makers to showcase the corruption rnaround surrogacy in this film but they took a separate direction. This rnproved to be the biggest plus and minus of the film. Delivering what is rnnot expected is a strength while being unrealistic is its weakness.
Thern main point of a thriller is to make the audience excited and engaged. rn'Yashoda' partly succeeded in this aspect. All the women carrying rnsurrogate babies coming to one place and getting disappeared one after rnthe other and the lead actress trying to solve this mystery make the rnproceedings engaging. Though the comedy and romantic portions did not rnwork out, people become curious to find out what was happening in the rnbuilding. There are a few loose ends on the way to solving this mystery rnbut they can be excused. The first half runs at a decent pace.
Thern main twist gets revealed immediately after the second half starts. rnThough the shock factor worked quite well, it looks a bit unnatural rnwhich gives a mixed feeling to the viewer. After that, there are not rnmany scenes that managed to hold the interest of the audience. Had the rntwist been revealed during the pre-climax, the situation would have beenrn entirely different. The lag after the flashback episodes worked againstrn the movie. The twist linked to the heroine's character is not exciting rnat all as we have seen such twists a lot of times. The graphs falls rnfurther down during the pre-climax and climax portions. But the movie rndoesn't bore you entirely. People who are interested in watching rnthrillers with different concepts can have a look at 'Yashoda' that too rnby keeping their expectations in check.
Performances:
Notrn all actresses can pull off the Yashoda role. We realize that only a fewrn big stars like Anushka and Samantha can pull off this character. rnSamantha carried the entire film on her shoulders. She showed the rnvarious shades perfectly throughout the film. During the action rnsequences, we get a feeling that only Samantha can do them and her imagern of being a fitness freak worked in her favour. Sam performed rnconvincingly in the emotional scenes too.
Unni Mukundan played rnthe role with two variations quite well. Varalaxmi Sarathkumar is rnimpressive in the negative role. Rao Ramesh showed his worth in the rnbrief role. His character reminds people of the role he did in 'Pakka rnCommercial'. Actors like Sampath, Shatru, Kalpika Ganesh, Divya Sripada rnand others were apt for their roles and did complete justice.
Technicians:
Manirn Sharma's background score is a big asset to 'Yashoda'. His work played arn crucial in bringing intensity to the proceedings. He showcased his rnexperience during engaging sequences and definitely enhanced the viewingrn experience. The bit songs in the movie are not that impactful. rnSukumar's cinematography is very good. Production design is okay and thern makers spent handsomely on the movie. The art work is a bit artificial rnat times. Pulagam Chinna Naraya and Challa Bhagyalakshmi's dialogues arern sharp. They are not over the top and were apt for the mood of the rnmovie.
Director duo Hari and Harish selected a very unique pointrn and try to narrate in on an interesting note. Despite all their rnefforts, they failed to present the plot point in a convincing manner. rn'Yashoda' had the potential to become a gripping thriller but it did notrn shape out convincingly as the makers decided.
Verdict: Yashoda - A Mixed Bag Of Excitement & Disappointment
Rating: 2.5/5
Cast: Samantha, Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar, rnUnni Mukundan, Rao Ramesh, Sampath, Murali Sharma, Shatru, Divya rnSripada, Kalpika Ganesh and others.
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: Sukumar
Producer: Shivalenka Prasad
Dialogues: Pulagam Chinna Narayana, Challa Bhagyalakshmi
Story - Screenplay - Direction: Hari and Harish
Samantharn is one of the very few heroines in Tollywood who can manage to bring rnpeople into the theatres just by herself. After impressing the audience rnwith movies like 'U Turn' and 'Oh! Baby', she has arrived with another rnfemale-oriented film titled 'Yashoda'. Directed by Tamilian director duorn Hari and Harish, this movie is a complete thriller and generated good rnbuzz with this promotional content. Let's dive into the review and find rnout how the movie is.
Story:
Yashoda (Samantha) is a rnmiddle class girl who accepts to become pregnant through surrogacy as rnshe is in need of money. He signs an agreement with a big company and rngoes to a mysterious building in order to stay there right from getting rnpregnant to delivering a child. She experiences some unique situations rnthere and realizes that there is something wrong going on. Women who arern ready to deliver the babies go missing one after the other. Yashoda rnrealizes that there is a big mystery behind this. What is it? What does rnYashoda do to put an end to it? The answers to these questions form the rnrest of the story.
Analysis:
Do you remember Ravi Babu's rn'Amaravathi' starring Tarak Ratna as the villain and Bhumika in a key rnrole? Just like Ravi Babu's 'Anasuya', 'Amaravathi' is also an rninteresting thriller that is made on a different concept. While it was rngood, the concept of the villain attacking the pregnant women did not gorn down well with audience. Despite the directorial brilliance, the rnhard-hitting scenes which revolved around pregnant women were hard to rnaccept at that time. The plot point is the main reason for the failure rnof 'Amaravathi' despite being a good thriller. Reminding this movie, rnTamil directors Hari and Harish came up with 'Yashoda'. There are no bigrn comparisons between both the movies but they revolve around pregnant rnwomen. The plotline is quite different in 'Yashoda' too and it stuns yourn many times. Even in this movie, the hard-hitting narration around such arn sensitive subject proved to be a bit difficult. Despite succeeding in rnkeeping the viewers guessing, the 'Yashoda' team failed to convince the rnaudience. With pluses and minuses being in the same level, it hard to rncall 'Yashoda' successful but it is definitely not a failure.
Rightrn from the teaser, it has been made clear that 'Yashoda' is a film made rnon a different concept and has strong content. Hari and Harish who made rncontent-oriented films in Tamil till date, did the same in Telugu too. rnThey should be appreciated for choosing this point and doing a lot of rnhard work during the scripting stage. But there did not entirely succeedrn in narrating it in a convincing manner. We are often seeing celebritiesrn becoming parents through surrogacy nowadays. With Nayanthara and rnVignesh Shivan becoming parents in the same way recently and a lot of rncontroversy happening around it, the concept of 'Yashoda' looks rncontemporary. People expected the makers to showcase the corruption rnaround surrogacy in this film but they took a separate direction. This rnproved to be the biggest plus and minus of the film. Delivering what is rnnot expected is a strength while being unrealistic is its weakness.
Thern main point of a thriller is to make the audience excited and engaged. rn'Yashoda' partly succeeded in this aspect. All the women carrying rnsurrogate babies coming to one place and getting disappeared one after rnthe other and the lead actress trying to solve this mystery make the rnproceedings engaging. Though the comedy and romantic portions did not rnwork out, people become curious to find out what was happening in the rnbuilding. There are a few loose ends on the way to solving this mystery rnbut they can be excused. The first half runs at a decent pace.
Thern main twist gets revealed immediately after the second half starts. rnThough the shock factor worked quite well, it looks a bit unnatural rnwhich gives a mixed feeling to the viewer. After that, there are not rnmany scenes that managed to hold the interest of the audience. Had the rntwist been revealed during the pre-climax, the situation would have beenrn entirely different. The lag after the flashback episodes worked againstrn the movie. The twist linked to the heroine's character is not exciting rnat all as we have seen such twists a lot of times. The graphs falls rnfurther down during the pre-climax and climax portions. But the movie rndoesn't bore you entirely. People who are interested in watching rnthrillers with different concepts can have a look at 'Yashoda' that too rnby keeping their expectations in check.
Performances:
Notrn all actresses can pull off the Yashoda role. We realize that only a fewrn big stars like Anushka and Samantha can pull off this character. rnSamantha carried the entire film on her shoulders. She showed the rnvarious shades perfectly throughout the film. During the action rnsequences, we get a feeling that only Samantha can do them and her imagern of being a fitness freak worked in her favour. Sam performed rnconvincingly in the emotional scenes too.
Unni Mukundan played rnthe role with two variations quite well. Varalaxmi Sarathkumar is rnimpressive in the negative role. Rao Ramesh showed his worth in the rnbrief role. His character reminds people of the role he did in 'Pakka rnCommercial'. Actors like Sampath, Shatru, Kalpika Ganesh, Divya Sripada rnand others were apt for their roles and did complete justice.
Technicians:
Manirn Sharma's background score is a big asset to 'Yashoda'. His work played arn crucial in bringing intensity to the proceedings. He showcased his rnexperience during engaging sequences and definitely enhanced the viewingrn experience. The bit songs in the movie are not that impactful. rnSukumar's cinematography is very good. Production design is okay and thern makers spent handsomely on the movie. The art work is a bit artificial rnat times. Pulagam Chinna Naraya and Challa Bhagyalakshmi's dialogues arern sharp. They are not over the top and were apt for the mood of the rnmovie.
Director duo Hari and Harish selected a very unique pointrn and try to narrate in on an interesting note. Despite all their rnefforts, they failed to present the plot point in a convincing manner. rn'Yashoda' had the potential to become a gripping thriller but it did notrn shape out convincingly as the makers decided.
Verdict: Yashoda - A Mixed Bag Of Excitement & Disappointment
Rating: 2.5/5