Before delving into the story, director Ramakhanth Reddy tries to justify why the story has to be told with the title 'Kaliyugam Pattanamlo'.
Ramakhanth Reddy's directorial 'Kaliyugam Pattanamlo'. (X)
Kaliyugam Pattanamlo is about twin brothers Vijay and Sagar who live in Nandyal town in the Rayalaseema region.
Sagar (Vishwa Karthikeya) develops a strange psychological behaviour as a child. A strange conduct creeps into him and complicates things as he grows up.
A series of crimes that occur in the neighbourhood prompts his father (Devi Prasad) to put his child Sagar into psychiatric care.
While Sagar languishes a tough life in a mental institute, his brother Vijay always wishes to make his parents reunite with his brother Sagar who grew up without proper parental love.
Things get complicated when his girlfriend (Aayushi Patel) starts eliminating the accused in various crimes in the town.
Aayushi becomes a thorn in the flesh, as cops struggle to crack the murders. What danger does Aayushi pose to Vijay’s family, especially Sagar who has an instinct for committing crimes?—is the story.
‘Kaliyugam Pattanamlo’ is a crime thriller. (X)
A brief introduction about the legend of the past —King Sri Krishnadevaraya who ruled the Rayalaseema region — at the beginning of the film sets the pace as to how the Nandyal town came into existence 500 years ago.
Before delving into the story, director Ramakhanth Reddy tries to justify why the story has to be told with the title Kaliyugam Pattanamlo. He describes why it is called the “age of darkness”, characterised by different levels of moral and societal decline.
Writing a script with elements like thriller and suspense needs a proper compelling premise with high-stakes situations.
Though the story has a mysterious event happening in the neighbourhood while the character Sagar has a hidden agenda, it is not convincingly executed in the first hour, thus making the first half a little slow.
Just towards the interval, the mystery unravels with unexpected twists in the story keeping audiences guessing who is the actual antagonist.
Director Ramakhanth Reddy tries to create well-rounded characters with good depth. When Aayushi starts killing the rapists who just got released from bail, the sequence sends chills down the spine.
Kaliyugam Pattanamlo, a suspense thriller until then, turns out to be female empowerment at this minute.
The makers should have effectively used the pace of the screenplay to maintain suspense in the second half because the second half slightly drifts from what is shown in the first half.
Of course, Vishva Karthikeya gets a lot of layers to his characters — drugs, his eccentric behaviour, and sexual assaults committed violently.
Except for the climax, the second half lacks any edge-of-the-seat moment. But the director connects the dots in the fag end of the story to make a conclusive ending.
The lead pair — Vishva Karthikeya and Aayushi Patel — delivers convincing performances on the screen, especially in terms of bringing finesse to acting,
Vishva needs to sharpen his craft to effectively portray various shades of a character.
Chitra Shukla does well as the female cop Sivangi. She reminds yesteryear star Vijayashanthi in a few frames. But her characterisation could have been better.
Anish Kuruvilla is okay in his role as a higher-rank cop.
Let the rhythm of this love song guide you.#Neevalane lyrical from the movie #KaliyugamPattanamlo is out now on @adityamusic
▶ https://t.co/ei7iTYK3Lo@nanimovieworks & #RaamaaCreations@actor_vishva #AayushiPatell @ChitraShuklaOff @ramakhanthreddy #AjayArasada @manasimm… pic.twitter.com/9uhfUETj2B
— Aditya Music (@adityamusic) March 7, 2024
The music scored by Ajay Arasada is decent.
The cinematography rendered by Charan is partly convincing. Background scores should have been kept uniform. At one point, you wonder why Lokesh Kanagaraj comes flashing into your brain.
The mood, atmosphere, and overall tone of the film could have been better.
The editing by BH Garry should be appreciated.
The film production design and standards rendered by Chandra Obul Reddy, Maheswara Reddy, and Katam Ramesh are fairly good.
Kaliyugam Pattanamlo is a story of various elements combining romance, murder mystery, action, and women empowerment with a social message.
This low-budget flick with a relatively not-so-popular cast and crew might get a chance to prove its mettle only if Siddhu Jonnalagadda-starrer Tillu Square topples at the box office.
(Views expressed here are personal.)
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