Many young filmmakers are coming forward to make their mark by presenting some unique stories that are not only aesthetically appealing but also creating new precedence in filmmaking.
Colour Photo made by the talented film maker Sandeep Raj is one such film that has impressed a lot by its sheer storytelling. He has come again with another story Heads and Tales, streaming on Zee5 that deals with various shades in the lives of three girls who get entangled in different situations resonating the patriarchal tendencies.
Story
Alivelu Manga (Divya Sripada), Shruthi (Chandini Rao), and Anisha (Sri Vidya Maharshi) have different lives but all the three have one thing in common that results in making them vulnerable. The male chauvinism encountered by them turns their lives upside down.
Manga, the police constable gets threatened by her drunkard husband Venkatesu (Arun Pulavarthi), Anisha being ambitious too gets humiliated by her boyfriend Deepak Shetty (Tharun) with whom she already got engaged, and Shruthi who had a bitter past prone to the judgment of her character by her boyfriend Praveen (Kiwish Koutilya) based on some candid comments made by his friend.
The chance meeting between Manga and Anisha brings them closer enough as they overcome their fears in course of time gathering strength to face the reality that replaced the fear in their minds.
Praveen too realises his mistake and wins back the hand of Sruthi after a lot of drama and interesting exchange of views between these two.
How do these three girls have gone through the lows and what made them strong enough is what Head and Tales (Part 1) is about.
Performances
Divya Sripada has got a well-written character to which she has done total justice with her immaculate performance. The character of Alivelu Manga in this film will give her more recognition than all her earlier ones.
Sri Vidya was good in some scenes particularly the scene where she threatens Venkatesu but when it comes to emotional scenes she needs to do a lot of hard work for improvement (the VR headset was her saviour as it has partially hidden her facial expressions when she has narrated her shady flashback).
Chandini Rao too needs training when doing emotional scenes and her performance too looked amateurish which require a lot of fine tuning.
There was nothing much to analyze about the performances of other actors who had a very limited screen time.
Above all, the cameo by Suhas with some punch-packed dialogues in a very short time stands as the highlight of the film.
Equally commendable was Sunil whose presence was a big asset to the film and in the avatar of the creator, he was strikingly different with a balanced bass tone that added sanctity to the character.
Behind the scenes
Sandeep Raj has proved his writing potential again by penning a different story that was high on love and human relations. The way he presented the three characters by exposing the humiliation and harassment they face from their loved ones was on target.
Though faltered at places, the director Sri Krishna Enreddy has rightly conveyed the mood of the film with some hard-hitting scenes. For example, the stalker scene, Venkatesu-Anisha scenes, and Shruthi-Praveen coffee shop scene were very well executed.
The refreshing dialogues of Kittu Vissapragada are another exceptional feature of the film.
Mani Sharma’s music and Ramya Behra’s lone song suit the narrative though there was nothing special to write about this department.
Final Verdict
Heads and Tales ended on a suspenseful note indicating that there is some major twist in the ensuing Part 2.
Overall, part 1 is a refreshing sortie on partiarchism centred on love and relationships especially the fears and apprehensions among the three characters were very well depicted.
Once you finished watching this part, you can’t stop waiting for the second part that will roll out somewhere in 2022 and this is where Heads and Tales emerge as the winner.
