W/o Ram - Movie Review

What’s it about!

Deeksha (Lakshmi Manchu) loses her husband and has miscarriage in an attack. Deeksha strongly believes that her husband Ram (Samrat) had been murdered while police think there are no substantial evidence to prove so. She starts digging this deep. A trainee police officer Chari (Priyadarshi) also helps her and she finds a clue. She suspects her husband must have been killed by Rocky (Adarsh Balakrishnan) as CCTV footage at a club shows him arguing with her husband couple of nights before the murder. He is in Bangkok now. Is Rocky really the murderer? How can she bring him to Hyderabad?
 
Analysis
 
Vidya Balan starrer “Kahaani” is a trend-setting thriller in Indian cinema. Lakshmi Manchu’s “Wife of Ram” begins in similar style of “Kahani” at the outset. In “Kahaani”, a pregnant Vidya Balan sets out to find out her missing husband in Kolkota and gets help from a young police officer. Sujoy Ghosh's narration was so gripping that audiences didn't see the coming of the twist.
 
In “Wife of Ram”, Manchu Lakshmi in the role of Deeksha begins her quest to find who killed her husband and gets help of a young police officer. Here too there is a twist but it gives the clues too early in the movie.
 
However Lakshmi Manchu’s film has a different message and a different twist.
 
New director Vijay Yelakanti who has also written the script has begun his thriller in familiar manner of the movies made in this genre but he has written screenplay interestingly to keep the suspense to the most part. Though he focuses on many unimportant episodes way more than the required time and takes too much time to get to the point, his screenplay in middle portions is taut and engaging. The twist can easily be guessed but he has kept a good message in the end.
 
The film is essentially a revenge thriller with the theme of sexual abuse (Women generally face sexual abuse from known persons or relatives or friends and this point is well established in this thriller). This kind of thrillers needs an actor who makes audiences to overlook the clues and completely immerse in the atmospherics. Lakshmi Manchu, though she has put in earnest effort, is not entirely convincing in her role, her expressions easily give that she is hiding something. This has spoiled a bit.
 
But the film has a strong and topical message, has right premise and many engaging episodes. Also the cinematography and production design has helped creating the mood right. The red and blue colors dominate throughout balancing the good and bad elements of the theme. Raghu Dixit's background score is just okay.
 
The film is completely driven by Lakshmi's show. Priyadarshi has got good role. Samrat Reddy and Adarsh Balakrishnan appear in small and important roles. New director Vijay Yelakanti has got some things right despite some flaws.
 
Bottom-line: 'Wife of Ram' has got a decent premise that runs in the path of 'Kaahani'. The final message and some engaging episodes are plus points but it the narration that wobbles and lacks tautness.