Movie Review : '7:11 PM'

 

Cast: Saahas Pagadala, Deepika Reddy, Bharat Reddy, Tess Walsh, Raghu Karumanchi, Charan Kurugonda and others.

Music: Gyaani

Cinematography: Shiva Shankar Varman

Producer: Naren Yanamadala and Madhuri Ravipati

Writer - Director: Chaitu Madala
 

Tollywood is brimming with young talent who are not afraid to try something out of the box. '7:11 PM' is one such film which generated a decent buzz with its interesting trailer. It deals with the concept of time travel which was not touched a lot before. Mythri Movie Makers distributed this film in the Telugu states while Saahas Pagadala played the lead role. Let us see how the movie turned out.

Story:

Ravi (Saahas) is a youngster from 1999 who lives in Hamsaladeevi. He wants to be an IPS officer and is in love with Vimala (Deepika). There are some questionable things happening in his town which involve the Sarpanch, a minister and a chit fund company owner. Ravi along with his friends try to find out what they are planning. One day he suddenly gets into a local bus that turns into a time traveling vehicle. He finds himself in 2024 where he meets Sarah (Tess Walsh). With her father's help, he finds a way to go back in time and save his people and village from what is about to happen.

Analysis:

Science fiction is a genre which is not touched upon by many filmmakers in Tollywood. Despite attempting different concepts in recent times, this genre and especially the time traveling theme is not explored by many. We have seen many time traveling films in Hollywood and legendary Singeetham Srinivasa Rao made 'Aditya 369' back in 1991 which shows how ahead he was of his times. It was the best Telugu movie in terms of time traveling even today. Such movies usually require a lot of budget and a very tight screenplay that leaves no room for flaws.

But '7:11 PM' is a movie which tried to deal with a lot of issues at once. With time travel as the backdrop, there was a lot going on in the movie. It starts off showcasing two people travelling from 2040 to 1999 and shifts into Hamsaladeevi area. The main characters are introduced through a voiceover and while the audience are still getting familiar with the main characters, there is a lot happening onscreen without any context. The entire first half goes on like this where the movie jumps from one thread to another. This leads to a lot of confusion and the viewer is left clueless. One thread involves the time travellers, another thread involves the hero's love story, other deals with bad politicians trying to build a dam while the other thread showcases a scam in the chit fund company that the hero and his gang try to bring to light. The writers and director failed to deliver compelling scenes as not one of the threads makes you feel invested.

The scene before the interval makes you a bit interested and one might think that the proceedings may get interesting in the second. The story shifts abroad and the hero unknowingly transports to 2024. The hero doesn't know what to do and the way the makers showed how he goes back in time is quite unconvincing. The over dramatic dialogues mouthed by the hero in the second half bore you to the core. Also, the track involving the rapist could have been trimmed as it took a lot of runtime in the latter half. The director tried to give answers to all the questions which were left unanswered in the first half. But all of them were solved in the last 15-20 minutes which feels a bit rushed. The end portions should have been dealt with more care as they lack conviction. Barring the last 20 minutes, the entire second half is too slow which tests the patience of the audience. Despite the hero showcasing a lot of emotions onscreen, the viewers do not feel them as they feel disconnected from the film right from the beginning which turns out to be the biggest minus.

Though the makers need to be appreciated for taking up such a unique theme, the film does not heavily impress you. The actors and technicians were sincere with their efforts but it is the writing and direction where the film fell apart. Had the logics been taken care of and had the director taken an uncomplicated approach without dealing with too many subplots at once, the film would have impressed the audience to an extent.

Performances:

Saahas Pagadala as Ravi did a decent job. He looks good onscreen and appeared confident in many scenes. His expressions during some emotional scenes require improvement. Deepika Reddy looked beautiful but she did not have a lot to do in the film. Her character lacked depth. Tess Walsh as the girl who supports him in Australia is okay. She was quite expressive and the actor who played her father's role is convincing too. Bharat Reddy's role is quite predictable but he leaves a mark in the short screentime. Actors like Raghu Karumanchi, Rising Raju, Marina, Vasu Routhu, Charan Kurugonda, Loie Athanasiou does not have a lot to do.

Technicians:

'7:11 PM' is a movie made on a limited budget but the technical crew tried their best to give quality content. The background score is decent in many places while the two songs were wrongly placed. The visuals are quite good despite the constraints. The village scenes were well captured. The editing work is very patchy as none of the subplots were well established. Also, the second half is way too slow. The movie would have been a lot crisper. The VFX is not that great but it can be understood due to the budget limitations. The production values are just about okay.

Writer and director Chaitu Madala's concept for this movie is interesting and he needs to be appreciated for writing something unique. But the screenplay is where the film faltered. There are a lot of subplots in the movie but none of them were explained properly. There is a serious lack of emotions in the movie and the director's hurry to move on from one thread to another made the film very haphazard. While the plotline is unique, the lack of proper execution makes it a tough watch.
 

Verdict: '7:11 PM' - Poor Execution Plays Spoilsport!

 

Rating: 2/5