There are a small number of films, a few of them, with big premises that may take us into new territories and tell stories from small towns. One of these is the Telugu movie Yevam directed by Prakash Dantuluri. The director along with Divya Narayan writes about crime drama within the Vikarabad district of Telangana. These fake ads have a serial offender who has been targeting women for dinner dates with A-list male actors and long rides in his car. This is fascinating because it tells us about the story where young female police officer named Chandini Chowdary plays the role of an effective woman eager to prove herself in this world dominated by men alone. This storyline held my attention for a bit before losing me as it went on. Later, this starts going south as the writing gets silly undermining its original promise.
The opening crime sequence serves as the prologue and suggests there might be a psychopath on loose. Then we see how he does it later on. Now flyers are being spread all around the place where girls attend college at Hyderabad. Naïve youngsters are tricked into scanning QR codes that will give them an opportunity to win free dates with actor Prabhas during dinner time. How come she doesn’t find anything strange when she’s dropped off at some remote place? Probably, I convinced myself, being star-struck was blinding her judgement but soon enough I would know.
Yevam (Telugu)
Director: Prakash Dantuluri
Cast: Chandini Chowdary, Vasishta Simha, Bharat Raj, Goparaju Ramana.
Storyline: A young female police officer eager to prove herself tries to track down a serial offender who targets women. It turns out that her search was more dangerous than what she could ever imagine.
The film then shifts to a police station in Vikarabad where Sowmya (Chandini Chowdary) is a new recruit. Her colleagues include an older, friendly constable (Goparaju Ramana) and an inspector Abhiram (Bharat Raj) who is in a bad mood. Early banter between them reveals Sowmya’s character – the somewhat naive, likable, wide-eyed youngster who is all too eager to learn. When being told at home that she cannot be a police officer, she aspires to prove them wrong. Later on we understand why she joined the force and what her plans are. This portrayal of her vulnerability made me notice how she acts during criminal investigations but it gave me chills down my spine because I realized that she was not one to mess with.
The first hour literally drags along expected lines and sets stage for serial killer hunting with increasing crimes revealed from the past. A cliffhanger ending occurs before intermission which takes the narrative in an unforeseen direction. In addition, there are character studies of some people at the police station here and there. It seems like this officer respected women by asking his colleague. If he had thought about getting her daughter married to someone else or not? But still then you cannot take every single sentence at its face value.
Only if the writing had been more aggressive in these possibilities. At least from a public perspective, pieces of the puzzle are unraveled too quickly and Sowmya’s search for truth lacks this quick wit. There are other gaps in it. For example, I wondered how Sowmya could impersonate another young woman and offer to meet the perpetrator—because surely, the perpetrator had contacted her through Facebook, therefore would have seen her pictures? This aspect is not mentioned at all. In a subsequent important scene however, Sowmya does not even smell an obvious trap after one of her earlier plays goes awry leaving her injured.
When she realizes that the accused is a wolf in sheep’s clothing (Climax). She doesn’t have any clear plan on what to do next. The confrontation was ridiculous to say the least. Patchy visual effects, shifting identities of the offender and desperate attempt to paint his psychological profile do not work either. Sometimes red color is used to denote creepiness and impending danger. The music also works with it in harmony but all this is wasted as this narrative loses steam.
However Chandini and Goparaju Ramana try to hold things together but it’s simply not enough. On their part Vashista Simha and Bharat Raj deliver performances that fit their characterizations. But again let down by weak writing both for them. To say anything about their characters will spoil everything.
Yevam could have been a gripping crime drama celebrating an underdog female police officer. Instead it turns out as a feeble ghost of its intended self.
