Some small films were released this week and one of them is ‘Hatya’. Generally, director Ram Gopal Varma made movies with incidents that happened in Telugu States, but this time Srividya Basawa came up with this film ‘Hatya’. A few films were already made in the backdrop of Rayalaseema politician YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy’s murder. Srividya also has taken this murder story for ‘Hatya’ and she narrated it for somebody’s favour; who is that? It is just a coincidence that this week only female directors’ movies were released. Padmavathi Malladi came up with her film and now Srividya comes up with this one. The film is releasing without proper publicity as many people don’t even know about it. Names of persons and places are changed because of censor problems.
Story:
Dharmendra Reddy (Ravi Varma) is a popular leader in Illendula and his murder was mysterious. Initially, they said it was a heart attack, but later revealed it was a murder. He is also uncle to Chief Minister Kiran Reddy (Bharath Reddy). So, he appoints a strict police officer Sudha (Dhanya Balakrishnan) to investigate his uncle’s murder. The problem starts after Reddy’s murder. Some people cleaned the house and the entire murder scene. So it is very difficult for the investigation team to get clues about the case. But still she starts her investigation and comes to know some interesting things that Dhamendra Reddy is in debt and he has a love interest Salima (Pooja Ramachandran). Sudha also sees Reddy’s daughter Kavitha’s (Bindu Chandramouli) angle for the movie. What happened in the end, who is behind Reddy’s murder and what is the motive, is the crux of the story.
Analysis:
Director Srividya gave discrimination in the beginning of the movie that the story is completely ficticious with names and places not resembling anyone dead or living. Though she did that, people can still understand that this story is based on YS Viveka’s murder case. This murder was a big sensation at that time and it is also a mysterious one. Even after six years, the investigation is still going on. More than that, most of the viewers know about this case and they read and heard about it in newspapers and also on television and social media. There are many stories that came out on this murder. So, how the director narrates the murder case is interesting.
Srividya narrates the first half interestingly with Sudha, the leader of the investigation team entering Reddy’s house and starts enquiring from all corners. The way the team interrogates everyone related to this murder is interestingly narrated. But the director completely falls flat in the second half with the love story of Reddy, which is not up to the mark, and the way the investigation deliberately pointed out Reddy’s daughter for the motive.
In reality, the CBI has taken over the case and it still it pending. But the director in the film wanted to do favour to someone. So, she pointed out that Reddy’s daughter is behind the murder. If she leaves with different angles and without bias, the film is definitely interesting. At some point it is predictable that the director’s story will go the way it is going and then interest is lost. The movie was made with good production values. The cinematography is good, especially in the first half of the investigation. Before the film’s release, the director said that she didn’t conclude in the end, but she ends the story with how and what happened.
When it comes to the performance, Dhanya Balakrishnan steals the show with her performance. After a long time she gets to play the main role in a film and in this one, she perfectly played the cop role. Her dialogue delivery, body language is good and she behaved in every scene naturally. Ravi Varma played the role of Dharmendra Reddy and he carried it in a very graceful manner. Definitely, this film is a good one for him as an actor. Pooja Ramachandran played the love interest of Reddy and she too did her part well. Ravi Teja’s brother Raghu, Sivaji Raja also played as cops. There are actors who played the roles of Venkatesh Reddy, Peddireddy, Kavithamma, Kishore Reddy, Shaik Ali, Anand Yadav and Bhadrayya, and they all supported well. Most of the characters speak in the Rayalaseema dialect, which is a good thing.
Finally, ‘Hatya’ story is based on a real-life murder case, but director Srividya Basawa succeeded only half way through. If the director focused on the story more rather than to do favour a person through the film, she definitely failed. Earlier also, many directors made films favouring one particular political party and they failed at the box-office. ‘Hatya’ too falls in the same category.Film: Hatya
Cast: Dhanya Balakrishna, Ravi Varma, Pooja Ramachandran, Bindu Chandramouli, Sivaji Raja, Srikanth Iyengar,
Cinematographer: Abhiraj Nair Music: Naresh Kumaran
Producer: S Prashanth Reddy Director: Srividya Basawa
Release date: January 24, 2025 Rating: 1.5/5
