Anya's Tutorial Web Series Review!
Cast: Regina Cassandra, Nivedhithaa Satish, Prassadh and others
Music director: Arrol Corelli
Cinematographer: Vijay K Chakravarthy
Editor: Ravi Teja Girijala
Producers: Shobu Yarlagadda, Arka Media
Director: Pallavi Gangireddy
In
its list of original content, top Telugu OTT platform Aha adds another
interesting web series named 'Anya's Tutorial'. Featuring Nivedithaa
Satish and Regina Cassandra in the lead roles, Pallavi Gangireddy
directed it. This series created a good buzz with its spooky trailer and
let us see how this web series turned out.
Story:
Lavanya
(Nivedithaa Satish) and her elder sister Madhu (Regina) go through a
very troubled childhood. After completing her education, Lavanya decides
to move away from her family and rents an apartment. She lives alone
there but it is when the lockdown period starts. With nowhere to go,
Lavanya starts posting videos through her Instagram handle with Anya's
Tutorial as its name. She comes up with content where she tries to make
people believe that there are spooky and haunting elements in her house.
This catches the attention of a lot of people but Lavanya starts
experiencing abnormal activities in her house for real. Intriguingly,
all these aspects are linked with her elder sister Madhu. What does
Madhu have to do in this whole scenario? Will Lavanya survive at the
end? These questions will be answered in the psychological thriller.
Analysis:
The
Telugu audience are exposed to a lot of different genres but
psychological thrillers are very rarely made here. People usually enjoy
this genre through dubbed versions of Malayalam or Tamil movies or
series. Content in this genre needs a lot of skillful narration in order
to keep the audience invested. The makers of 'Anya's Tutorial' needs to
be commended for making an effort to come up with a psychological
thriller in Telugu. But the seven-episode series leaves you a lot to be
desired.
The series starts off on a confusing note and director
Pallavi Gangireddy used the first three episodes to completely establish
the plotline. The screenplay became too slow during this time and there
were a lot of scenes that felt repetitive. There are not enough spooky
moments during this portion that sends shivers down your spine. All this
time, the viewer wonders about the intentions of both sisters. Despite
all its shortcomings, the initial episodes sustain to hold the interest
of the audience.
The show takes a gritty turn and it is when
Regina's character gains significance. Things start getting interesting
and there were some scenes which were picturized brilliantly. Anya
getting possessed by evil spirit is presented quite well and the writing
is good in some parts too. Anya's childhood and her issues with
Regina's character are quite convincingly showcased. The show is set
around modern technology but logic goes for a toss quite often. There is
a lot of crime that keeps happening and the cops are not called for a
long time which lacks any explanation. Also, there are a few scenes in
which the performance of lead actors appears too forced and artificial
which spoil the viewing experience.
In every psychological
thriller, there is a strong flashback episode that explains why a person
or a character behaves in a certain manner. But 'Anya's Tutorial' falls
short in this aspect as a lot of detailing which is required for
narration goes missing. A lot of threads in the story have been left
untied in this series which works against it.
While the good
technical output and decent writing at parts, may keep you engaged in
the show, there are a lot of loopholes that will dampen the flow. Also,
the team gave a twist in the end hinting at a possible second season and
we need to see if it really happens or not. A tighter narration,
attention to detail and some more spooky moments may have worked wonders
for this series but it did not happen.
Performances:
The
show is publicized with Regina's face on the promotional content but it
is Nivedhitaa Satish who steals the show. The entire story is written
around her and she definitely hogged the limelight. She is very
convincing as Anya and showcased different emotions quite convincingly.
She is certainly one of the biggest assets of this series.
Regina's
character is not well-etched and her performance too appeared forceful
at times. But she makes her experience count during the last episodes.
People who expect Regina to be the front and center of the show might
get disappointed. There are a lot of fresh faces in this series and all
of them did a decent job.
Technicians:
The
camerawork is very good in this film. The usage of darkness sets the
mood perfectly. A lot of scenes were made more dramatic than they are
due to the visuals and the cinematographer needs a special appreciation.
There are a lot of VFX used in this series and they are well executed.
The production values are quite good and so is the editing. The GBM is
strictly okay.
The main problem with the series is its writing
which leaves a lot to be desired and director Pallavi Gangireddy did her
best to extract good output from her entire team. But there is
something missing in this series that stopped it from being an
edge-of-the-seat thriller and a lot of horror elements.