Mahasamudram

Mahasamudram (2021)

Written and Directed by: Ajay Bhupathi
Starring: Sharwanand, Siddharth, Aditi Rao Hydari
Streaming on Netflix.

The film has a nice setting - smuggling in the Vizag port, two best friends with opposing ideologies who later become rivals, one of them slowly becoming a gangster, there is a woman involved between both the friends - there is a lot of scope for drama. For me, the transition of Arjun from a man with values, to a man who starts shooting goons was too fast. It happened like a sudden jump. It just happens after Chunchu mama convinces him about something. The same with the transition of Siddharth's character in the ending, it happens after some revelations by Chunchu. Yes, there are some twists that come out here, but still when a character changes polar opposite because of some information, it's not visually convincing. For me, the motivation of Vijay was unclear throughout the film. Initially, he left Maha and went somewhere, and later he comes back and feels bad that Arjun is with her. Anu Emmanuel's character didn't add much to the story apart from someone having to observe the contrast in Arjun - from how he was back then to how he is now. This could've been done by his mother too. 

But apart from these things, I liked how the film was shot. I could see the palette of Vikram Vedha, and I liked how they used the setting so well. There were shots of the beach in between, used as a transition from one scene to another. Rao Ramesh's character was designed very well - it's a nice way for the audience to strongly remember a character. Chunchu mama was also interesting - I've not seen Jagapathi Babu play a manipulator like that lately. The world building is also good, but the character motivations, and the arcs weren't coming through. There were huge jumps there. That was the issue for me.