A meek and lopsided effort
Aha Video, an exclusive Telugu OTT platform has come out with another anthology of three short stories with the title Addham touching various spheres of life and its vagaries.
Storyline
The first story The Road That Never Ends dwells on the story of a lorry driver who never cares about his life or the lives of his family members. He picks up a ninth standard failed adolescent boy Kumar on his way before meeting with a tragic end.
The next one Crossroads deals with the story of a husband who seeks solace of different kind after being rebutted by his wife.
The final one, The Unwhisphered Secrets is about a psychiatrist who comes across a patient who confesses about an accident he committed four years back. This incident creates ripples in the mind of the psychiatrist who reminisces about a similar incident involving her mother.
Performances
There is nothing much to mention about performances in these 3 episodes, each with a duration of 15 minutes.
Rohini and Jayaprakash have done well in the first story within shorter screen space. But a potential actor like Prasanna is wasted along with Dr Pavithrah Marimuthu who has nothing to do except a pointless chitchat in the second episode.
Similar is the case with another talented actor, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, who is also totally wasted in a character of no significance.
The remaining actors do not get registered due to their poor characterization and shorter screen time.
Behind the scenes
Even a simple story with an appealing line can be made into a masterpiece. But the story writers and directors of this miniseries seem to have different ideas. As a result, it was a big mess with the actors speaking Telugu as a foreign language and scenes lacking meaning or depth.
Though the writer has a magnificent idea in his mind, if he fails to project it effectively, it cannot reach the readers properly. The same is the case with the director of a film who needs to present the story convincingly with clarity otherwise the result would be in the form of Addham.
The saddest part is the improper accent and Telugu diction of some actors which should have been avoided with the help of proper dubbing. After all, it’s not wise to believe that the Telugu audience are dumb and deaf.
Verdict & Rating
Addham which comes with an interesting tagline Morality is a changing goalpost (What’s this?) is a meek and lopsided effort on the whole. This is the season one only and another season is not ruled out. Hence, let some better sense prevail in next season so that Addham can get some bouquets in place of brickbats it is bound to receive now.