4 Letters Review: Insensitive, infuriating and inexplicable

Some films are bad. Some are terrible. But only a few can be scarring. 4 Letters is just that to say the least. I can’t decide upon what I hated the most in the film. There are just so many things to pick from. 4 Letters is a caricaturish spoof of itself without intending to be. 

Here’s what the story supposedly was from what I gathered. Ajay is a uber-rich, super-intelligent engineering student, who is pretty much best at everything. Anjali is a violinist and a coward whose mom’s dream is to make her a maestro. She is branwashed to hate rich people by her mother because the latter’s rich husband leaves her after losing everything he has. Ajay’s father’s sole ambition in life, on the other hand, is to get his son married to a businessman’s daughter so she along with his son can expand the business. Meanwhile, there’s Anupama, a fashion technology student who loves her freedom and is apparently promiscuous. Who Ajay ends up with by the end, after many preachy monologues about many random things, is the crux of the film.

Cast: Eswar, Ankitha Maharaana, Tuya Chakraborthy
Director: Raghu Raj

Now, let’s list out some of the inexplicable moments in the film. There’s a drunkard watchman, who is obnoxiously loud and breaks into a dance in between scenes without any context. Everyone talks in sexual innuendos all the time; there are entire sequences dedicated to this. Every scene cuts after a literal reference to what the character is saying or doing in the next. It is a nice screenplay trick usually, but if you’re doing it for two-and-a-half hours, it gets annoying. Everyone’s name starts with A. Literally every character; no kidding. Ajay, played by Eswar, wears clothes that are an assault to the eyes. People talk about rape as a joke. The heroine, who slaps the guy asking her for sexual favours, agrees to “do anything” for the hero after he blackmails her. All while a comedy soundtrack plays in the background. Need I go on? 

With all due respect, Eswar, who makes his debut as a hero with this film, ought to have considered learning to move his facial muscles before landing a film. It is painful to watch him. On the other hand, watching Tuya Chakraborthy is also painful, but for different reasons. She mimes everything she says like a toddler reciting rhymes with action. Ankitha Maharaana is almost exactly the same, but is in great shape. However, because of how the film comes across, you feel disturbed and a little worried for her safety when she dances in a bikini. The several other seasoned artistes in the cast can’t save the film as they are subjected to the horrors that the characters and the movie itself are. 

The film is called 4 Letters. And after watching it, there are four letters that come to mind. It’s one big steaming pile of ... yes, you guessed it.