Ye Mantram Vesave Review: A muddled outdated mess

The only reason to watch this would be to see how far Vijay Deverakonda has come in terms of acting
Ye Mantram Vesave Review: A muddled outdated mess

How does a film shot by a mass communication student as part of college assignment look like? A little directionless and blurry in terms of flow. Although the crux of the story, which is about cybercrime, online girl-trafficking, and gaming rents space in the current affairs is relevant even today, the way it is showed in the film is quite outdated. Of course, this is probably at least in part because this film was supposed to take off five years ago.

Direction: Shridhar Marri
Cast: Vijay Deverakonda, Shivani Singh

The film is all about a prolific gamer Nicky (Vijay Deverakonda) who is glued to playing games in his room for months together and is also a habitual flirt who woos girls online. Nicky believes that women are just toys. He comes across Rags’s profile (Shivani Singh) and is keen on trapping her in his game of love. His ego is badly brushed when she rejects his friend request. He tries to entice her by posting videos imitating Ranbir Kapoor from Rockstar and rescuing a stray puppy on the road. He relentlessly tries to woo her. Interstingly, Rags is also a gamer and a game developer. She proposes an idea of developing a game where gamers meet real people in places which would evoke emotions in them. Her boss insults her idea and rejects it.

A disappointed Rags tries to test her game on the passionately aggressive gamer Nicky. The arrogant Nicky takes it up as a challenge, goes to different places with the help of clues to find Rags and win the game. There is another gang – Rags’s ex-colleague Danny, who is also trying to find her. Danny tries to stop Nicky from meeting Rags and thrashes him up. Here is the funny part, the chauvinistic Nicky, who addresses girls as just a plaything suddenly wants to save her from the attackers.

There is another storyline running perpendicularly. It is about a cute looking boy, who traps young girls by gaining their trust. He invites them for a date, abducts them, and sells them at an online auction. He is also trying to nab Rags for reasons unknown. Nicky learns about this trade while searching for Rags and exposes it. He becomes a hero overnight.

The penultimate scene and the climax on what happens to Rags are the only saving graces of the film. Although the conclusion is almost impressive, one has to have the patience to sit through the messy part. It looks like the climax was written first and the rest was planned on the spot.

The film fails in almost every department. My technologically-challenged mother would have done a better job in handling the camera. The film is a clumpy haphazard muddle until the climax. The voice-over towards the end says "log out of technology, log into life and feel the real emotions." The irony is none of the characters in the film emote well. Instead, they make a suspense thriller look like a small crime patrol video.

Bottomline: Try watching YMV only to see how far Vijay has come in terms of acting. 

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