Movie: The Story of a Beautiful Girl
Cast: Nihal Kodhaty, Drishika Chander, Madhunandan and Bhargava Poludasu
Director: Ravi Prakash Bodapati
Producer: Prasad Tiruvalluri
Music: Arviz
Cinematographer: Amardeep Guttala
The story is about a voice artist named Charitra (played by Drishika Chander) who goes missing in Hyderabad city after a late-night party on the city outskirts. Her friend Ravi (played by Nihal Kodhaty) gets anxious over her disappearance. The case is taken over by the special IPS officer from Delhi Aditya Chakravarthy (played by Bhargava Poludasu).
As the cops get deeper into the case, a missing link slowly unravels. Businessman Vikram (Samarth Yug) is accused for the alleged disappearance of the girl Charitra. Only strong evidence could put him behind bars. Meanwhile, the IPS officer grows suspicious of Ravi for concealing facts in the case. Will the cops crack the missing case of Charitra ever? Who is the culprit behind her disappearance is the story in short.
Review
Ravi Prakash Bodapati has been in the industry for close to two decades. He first provided a story to ‘Mantra’ starring Charmy Kaur in the lead way back in 2007. Since then, he has been an advisor and helping directors in script writing. He was with SS Rajamouli during the scripting process for the movie ‘Magadheera’. But couldn’t somehow venture into filmmaking for various reasons. But now he has come up with a strong deceptive thriller ‘The Story of a Beautiful Girl’.
Performances
The performance of Nihal Kodhaty certainly gives him the edge, the break that he has been expecting for a long time. After appearing in ‘Panchatantra Kathalu’, the actor strongly believed that ‘Butterfly’ and ‘The Story of a Beautiful Girl’ would catapult him to success. As a worn-out middle-class youth earning a meagre income through insurance policies, Nihal had to undergo several weeks of rehearsals along with his co-star to get the desired result.
Drishika Chander is another young talent that filmmakers can vouch for. With her fairly good screen presence, dialogue delivery with the perfect blend of emotions on the screen, Drishika has a bright future in showbiz. She possesses strong traits an actress should have to excel in the entertainment industry. She struck a perfect chord in convincing audiences with her character Charitra.
The film also introduced another young talent Samarth Yug, who played the business tycoon Vikram in the film. Giving up a lucrative profession in the aviation industry, Samarth followed his heart and landed up fetching a considerably meaty role as antagonist Vikram in the movie.
Actor-NRI Bhargava Poludasu, who produced a Telugu film ‘Gatham’ during the lockdown, made a vague acting attempt as a top cop, IPA Aditya Chakravarthy, a genius who is an expert in cracking mysterious criminal cases. But his character as an unorthodox IPS officer, who follows his instincts, isn’t convincing enough. His outlook as an out-of-the-box top cop assisted by a bunch of Telangana policemen, failed to attract any seriousness.
The film has its pitfalls in terms of screenplay and the sequence in narrating a mystery thriller. The modus operandi of how blackmailing has changed its form over the years – the scene when cops speak to media while divulging the details of people being duped by con men on the internet. And how the data of high-profile personalities is stolen and stored in a database. Actually, no clear attempt is made in the film to show how people are duped. If a person picks a call from an unknown number, his personal data like pics and videos are stolen. He continuously gets threatened by scamsters and the circumstances push him to commit suicide. This is not properly explained and showcased in the film.
There is a scene when the police team celebrating the closure of the missing case and a lady IPS, apparently dressed as a corporate professional, Bhavana Durgam, dancing along with her colleagues — looks so silly giving an impression of how police officials investigating the case are so numb to the degree of seriousness.
With a slightly repetitive overdose of dialogues, the film is a well-made attempt by employing crew and cast who are relatively new to the field. One would feel that the attempt is far superior to what mainstream films woven mystery thrillers.
Films fares well in other departments. Music from Arviz gives thrills as the story paces up in crucial junctures. Cinematographer from Amardeep Guttala is commendable.
What’s Good
Performances of lead pair
Post-interval and pre-climax blocks
What’s bad
Failed to connect loose ends
Sluggish first half
Bottom Line: Fair attempt to be a deceptive mystery thriller
Rating: 3 / 5
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