W/O Ram Review: A thriller with immense potential that falls short in execution

The film depends solely on Lakshmi Manchu’s character and performance; while the character is well-rounded and is convincing, the performance is a little uneven
W/O Ram Review: A thriller with immense potential that falls short in execution

Following in the welcome trend of films featuring women protagonists in Telugu, comes Manchu Lakshmi’s Wife of Ram aka W/O Ram. And it succeeds too. Well, almost.

Cast: Lakshmi Manchu, Samrat Reddy, Aadarsh Balakrishna
Director: Vijay Yelakanti

Deeksha (Lakshmi Manchu), distraught by the murder of her husband sets out to investigate the case herself after the authorities don’t show interest. Constable Chary (Priyadarshi), the one sincere officer from the Police Station takes it on himself to help Deeksha find the culprit. As the film progresses, she, along with the audience, uncovers clues leading to more clues to get to the bottom of the incident.

Even at a runtime of just two hours and two minutes, and despite being quite a tight story, the film feels slow. The silences, the pauses and the build up, which are possibly meant to add drama, misfire and end up dragging the film down. However, the film does keep you engaged. It keeps you hooked at least to know what happens next. 

W/O Ram depends solely on Lakshmi Manchu’s character and performance. While the character is well-rounded and is passably convincing, Lakshmi falls a little short. She delivers a fair performance in parts. But she also lacks in some parts, especially in her dialogue delivery. Having said that, compared to her previous work, Wife of Ram is certainly a film that she can brag about. Priyadarshi, in his role of a sincere cop, excels as usual. Aadarsh Balakrishna too has bagged a role right up his alley.

The film is heavily dependent on the storyline, which is fine. But the cliches weigh it down. The wronged woman, good cop-bad cop, a rich evil brat and a monologue about the decreasing safety for women – all the predictable tropes are there. Dialogue too is dumbed down to a point that makes it seem misplaced in the setting.

One wishes the same remarkable attention to detail in the set design was shown in the content as well. However, Vijay Yelakanti’s direction deserves a mention, and the music blends right in with the visuals.

In all, Wife of Ram is a script with immense potential that misses the punch due to dry execution. Watch it with an open mind and you may not be too disappointed.

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