Bethaludu - Movie Review

What's it about?

A software professional Dinesh (Vijay Antony), who lives with his mother and newly married wife Aishwarya (Arundhati Nair) keeps hearing strange voices. As the days pass, the voice in his body disturbs his daily life and due to this his friend is also killed in an accident. Then his boss takes him to a psychiatrist. Through his therapy, the doctor comes to know that he is suffering from recollection of his past life. In his last birth, he was a Telugu teacher who was cheated by his young wife Jayalakshmi. His current wife Aishwarya has same resemblance of Jayalakshmi. Has she reborn too? Or is he hallucinating? 
 
Analysis:

Vijay Antony came up with couple of dubbed movies but it was 'Bichchagadu' that made him popular in Telugu. The movie was one of the biggest hits this year. So, naturally his latest film 'Bethaludu' created huge interest. True to the promos, the film starts off stunningly. It actually surprises us with its superbly placed drama in the beginning.
 
In the very first scene it is revealed that he is haunted by something. Then within no time it is established that he is disturbed by the recollection of his past life. He is now on the hunt for Jayalakshmi, who is she? What does she do to him in his past life? This is revealed in a gripping manner that makes us glued to the seats. 
 
Even post interval, the movie goes interesting way, but after 15 minutes it completely slips through. The movie proceeds completely opposite to the gripping thriller setup. The fun of waiting for the hunt of 'Jayalakshmi' has gone missing from here. It is from here it meanders into a regular masala movie drama mode. Also the "revealing factor" is very clichéd, same has been done in many movies. So there is no novelty. And the climax is completely meh. 
 
Of the performances, Vijay Antony is good. He has done his best in both the roles he is in. His performance as Dinesh is in particular deserves appreciation. Arundhati Nair lacks conventional glam but she has come up with competent performance.
 
The movie has good technical values. What stands out here is background music. The music elevates the mood. The director's screenplay has dhum in the second half and his direction is good to some extent. 
 
Bottom-line: 'Bethaludu' sets up the mood right and gets it right in the beginning but undoes all this post-interval. Cliched penultimate sequences and bad climax has spoiled the thriller that has good first half.