Aithe 2.0 Review: Poor execution and lacklusture performances let this cyber thriller down

An ostensible vengeance drama against a cybercriminal, which turns into comedy central with its frail performances
Aithe 2.0 Review: Poor execution and lacklusture performances let this cyber thriller down

For the last three weeks, Telugu cinema has not had a release that is striking or even moderately good. And it looks like the jinx continues with Aithe 2.0. If you think this is a sequel to Aithe (2003) and head to the theatre anticipating that it will be as robust as the latter, then you are surely up for a major letdown. Instead, this is another setback for director Raj Madiraju -- an ostensible vengeance drama against a cybercriminal, which turns into comedy central with its frail performances.

Director: Raj Madiraju
Cast:  Indraneil Sengupta, Abhishek, Neerja, Zara Shah, Mrunal

The film starts with a ruthless murder by a cybercriminal called Avinash Ganguly (Indraniel Sengupta), CEO of an American bank called Ambank. The scene cursorily shifts to Ameerpet where there are four unapologetically ambitious but jobless engineers – Upen, Karan, Arjun and Ejaaz, who are into ghost coding. These half-naked gang stand on the terrace and voice their dream to take over software giants like Microsoft, Oracle etc. Upen is the gang leader, Karan is called the ooruodu because he hails from a remote village, Ejaaz is a food and porn addict and Arjun is a philomath. Upen’s girlfriend Rekha works for Ambank.

Karan comes up with an SMS banking gateway software, which is a win-win for customers and banks. The four friends try to get an appointment with the CEO of Ambank through Rekha. They meet the CEO and present their idea. When the CEO offers them a job, they reject and ask for a B to B deal of one million. They bag the deal and rejoice, unaware of the CEO’s motives.

Esha (Zara Shah) who eventually becomes a part of the gang through Rekha arranges a makeshift place for the four to work on the project. They name the project Eurekha and is kept undisclosed.

In the meanwhile, the CEO, who is notorious for cyber crimes including a malware that can blast a building, hacks into their laptops and computers and blasts it. They get to know that Avinash is launching the software but wonder how he got to know the name of the product, which was confidential. When they head to Avinash’s office to fight it out, they get thrown out and beaten up badly. Arjun decodes how the cybercriminal drudged into their computer and learns about malware. They pledge to teach Avinash a lesson and try to hack into Ambank. How they manage to do it makes the second half of the story. 

The double-entendre dialogues and unwanted jokes are a killjoy. The lip syncing is a disaster, and provides unintended comedy. The background music is gripping, but the songs are very bland. Barring Indraneil, the debutant actors all put in lackluster performances. Although the plot was good, the execution falls flat.

The team would do well to learn from short films and web series, and focus on bettering themselves vis-a-vis cinematography and narrative flow.  

Bottom line: Watch to know how a film shouldn’t be made.

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