Awe Movie-inspiring!

 The film begins with a distraught Kajal Aggarwal and ends with her. In between, the 115-minute running time explores a psychological condition – Multiple Personality Disorder – in a creatively chaotic arrangement of scenes and events, played out by a host of competent actors. 

Experiential in its feel and presentation and experimental in its overview and approach, Awe is an interesting film, especially for those who have been exposed to such flicks in Hollywood and occasionally  from the neighbouring film industries.

Stringing together such performers and giving them a distinct identity, director Prashant Varma has the hero-turned- producer Nani’s backing right from his voice over support, booming throughout the film. There is the ‘Mass Maharaja’ Ravi Teja too lending his flippant tone to the proceedings and this speeds up the narrative considerably.

Refreshing in the manner in which this intricate problem is handled and posited from a female perspective, Awe allows a very close look at the lives which our girls lead from the time they are born to the time they grow up as adults. Instead of a preachy, activist tone to the film, the helmsman makes it a series of stories, seemingly disjointed, but coalescing into a whole as the film ends.

Here is where the actors come into play. It is difficult to pinpoint who has done a good job and who has not as the delineation of identities of each one of them has been done well. If Murali Sharma as a magician lends his unique feel to the film, then Avasarala Srinivas as a wannabe scientist trying to invent a time machine puts up a highly watchable show. 

The girls – Nithya Menen, Eesha Rebba, Regina Cassandra and Kajal Aggarwal herself- all come up with very competent acting. The seniors like Rohini and a surprise addition Devadarshini of ‘ Muni’ fame too are not found lacking one bit. Priyadarshi has grown from strength to strength and he is his entertaining self in this movie too.

Super hero productions notwithstanding, Telugu cinema seems to have taken to romantic type releases and such different efforts too since the beginning of 2018. 

Urban and rurban audiences may relate to the movie for sure, but the success of the film rests on its universal appeal across the two states, where masala lovers still outnumber meaningful cinema watchers. If this challenge is overcome, then Awe can open up the middle path for more directors to tread in and make it a parallel track of movie making