Telugu Movies

Film: Mantra
Rating: 3.25/5
Cast: Charmy, Sivaji, Chitram Sreenu, Jeeva, Mallikarjuna Rao etc
Art: Y Satyanarayana
Editing: Upendra
Camera: Dasarath
Dialogue: Surendra Krishna
Choreography: Prem Rakshit
Music: Anand
Producers: Kalyan Ram, Ravi Prakash
Direction: Osho Tulasi Ram
Released On: 14th Dec 2007

It recalls the flicks like ‘A Film By Aravind’, ‘Ave Kallu’, ‘Chandramukhi’ and similar ones. The film is completely treated with horror and leaves the audience with many questions in head until the climax.

Story:
Mantra (Charmy) is a parentless girl and the owner of her ancestral estate ‘Mantra Nilayam’. She wants to sell that big house at the outskirts of the city. But whoever comes as tenants in that house will be killed in mysterious way. Hence no buyer comes forward to buy that house. Finally a person comes to buy the house on a condition. The condition is that someone should stay there for 3 months and stay alive. Then Mantra herself thinks of living in that bungalow along with her friend. But her friend notices some evil spirit and gets frightened.

They vacate the place and come back. Meanwhile, Hero (Shivaji), a rowdy who lives on land settlements approaches Mantra. She asks him to stay in ‘Mantra Nilayam’ for 3 months saying about the place and mysterious deaths. Her thinks to take some commission from Mantra after selling that house. Hence he starts staying there along with his three friends. Suddenly on a day, one of his friends in the group gets killed in mysterious way.

Then the story takes a full horror swing from then. What is Mntra Nilayam? Why there are mysterious deaths? Who is Mantra? Watch on screen to find answers for all these.

Performances:
Charmy excelled in her performance. Especially while showing fear in her face in second half she outshined. She added right tempo for the film with her glamour and performance. Shivaji is appropriate in his role.

Others are up to their mark.

The backbone of the film is music and sound effects. There are many moments where the audiences shake with fear. Editing also appeared to be very sane.

Cinematography should be lauded. Especially the toning effect is used appropriately. Direction by Tulasi Ram is up to the mark and production values are also very well within the requirement.

Analysis:
It is common that majority of horror films many a time justify with rational reasoning at the climax. The horror graph falls down at that point. The crucial part in dealing with a horror subject lies at that point.

The belief and disbelief on evils and spirits depend on the faith of the beholder. It is not required for a horror film maker to justify that there is no evil spirit. That may not be relished by a set of audience. At the same time the director need not prove that there is ‘evil spirit’. Rational minds dislike that. So, a horror film can be concluded with a doubt on existence of such spirits. Such conclusion haunts for longer time. But there would be no doubts in mind once this film concludes. Everything is rationalized at the end.

First half of the film is a mixture of little comedy and some horror. Second half is completely treated with high dose of horror. On a whole, it’s film for good time-pass. The presence of Charmy pulls young crowds to theaters. Music is another added factor for pulling youngsters. The film may go successful if youngsters become its patrons.