An amateurish attempt that fails to connect
Suresh Productions is a well-known production house with 50 years of presence in Tollywood and has the reputation of producing many blockbuster films across the country. Hence, the expectations were on the higher side when they took up the mantle of presenting Amrutharamam, a feature film in Telugu released on ZEE5 after it failed to come out in theatres due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Story
Amrutha (Amitha Ranganath) falls in love with Ram (Ram Mittakanti) in Australia. Everything seems to be rosy and going smoothly till some misconceptions and misunderstandings crop up between the two, thus pushing them into separation for a while.
A caricature-looking villain JD (JD Cherukuri) roams the streets of Sydney with a bunch of goons wielding sticks to catch Ram for settlement of a loan taken by him and another friend turned foe of Ram, Abhay (Vamsi Davuluri) play their part in the separation game thus inviting the wrath of both Amrutha and Ram.
As things are settling down, the lovelorn couple who like to get united in a marital bliss could not do so due to some unusual circumstances resulting in a sacrifice to preach that love never dies and lives on forever in the end.
Performances
Both Amitha and Ram need to go through a grueling acting course, particularly the male lead needs to learn a lot in terms of acting. Amitha, though faring a little better in comparison, doesn’t really impress.
The character of Amrutha’s brother, played by Srijith Gangadharan, rediscovers Telugu language and it turns out quite awful. None of the other characters in Amrutharamam make any sense.
Positives
Only the music by N S Prasu, the song Neeve Naku Sonthamani sung brilliantly by Chinmayi and Lokeswar and lyrics by Krishna Chaitanya are the saving grace of Amrutharamam.
Negatives
Surendar Kontaddi, who penned the dialogues along with handling screenplay and direction, fails to infuse life into the narrative and the result is quite evident on the screen. In addition, the selection of lead actors who have neither the screen presence nor any experience in acting made things get worse.
The photography fails to make any impact with repetitive angles and dull lighting. The editing is very sloppy and edgy with many unwanted scenes occupying the screen thereby extending the run time to painstaking 2 hours.
Worth it?
Only the aspiring filmmakers need to watch Amrutharamam to learn what mistakes need to be avoided. Others can give this a miss.
