‘Atharva’ review: Engaging crime thriller

Cast: Karthik Raju, Simran Chaudhary, Aira and others

Director: Mahesh Reddy

Music Director: Sri Charan Pakala

Cinematographer: CharanMadhavanei

Rating: 3/5

Crime thriller is the recent success formula genre in Tollywood. Most of the filmsin this genre are making huge money at the box-office. Crime movies are mainly dependent on police investigation. In this genre, “Atharva,” which made huge sound with the promotional content is hitting theatres on December 1. Directed by Mahesh Reddy, this movie stars Karthik Raju, Simran Chaudhary,Aira as the lead cast. The movie is produced by Subhash Nutalapati under Peggo Entertainments banner and produced by Nutalapati Narasimham and Anasuyamma. Here is the premiers talk of “Atharva.’

Story

Dev Atharva Karna (Karthik Raju) dreams of becoming a policeman and investigate cases. But fails in police selections because of his health issues. Later, he joins in Clues team and solves the theft case in seconds with his intelligence. In this sequence, his college mate Nitya (Simran Chaudhary) re-enters his life as a crime reporter. Karna cannot express his love for her. Nitya's friend Joshni (Aira) is a film heroine. At Joshni's house, Joshni and her boyfriend Shiva (Shiva) lie dead. Police will file a case that Shiva killed his girlfriend because of his suspicion and later commits suicide. There is no clue that there was a murder and someone else involved in the case, so the case is closed. But Nitya doesn't believe that. Karna also wants to solve the case. What is the background of Joshni and Shiva? Why did they both get killed? Who killed and how did Karna solve this case without a single clue? The answers to these questions is the main crux of the film.

Performances

Karthik Raju's character impresses everyone. His comedy timing with friends, seriousness in the time of hunting the case, love angle when with the girlfriend showed all kinds of emotions. Scenes and fights were not made for the sake of heroism. Simran Chaudhary looked beautiful on screen. Aira, who appeared as film heroine performs upto the mark. All the other characters portrayed their role perfectly to a certain extent.

Technicalities

The story written by director Mahesh Reddy is good. There have been many stories in this format so far. But unlike a police officer, a clue team officer will investigate without any clues. Basically crime thrillers make us feel bore at some extent but “Atharva” engages in every frame. Sri Charan Pakala songs are good but his background score gets all the attention.The visuals given by the cameraman Charan Madhavanei carried the mood of the movie well. Editing and production values are also good.