Ruhani Sharma's HER-Chapter 1 directed by Sreedhar Swaraghav generated interest with a good teaser and trailer. The film is releasing on 21 July 2023. The film's OTT rights are yet to be finalized and streaming will be after the completion of its theatrical run.
HER-Chapter 1 story is all about a female police officer who uses her grit, tenacity, and intelligence while trying to solve a double murder case against all odds. ACP Archana Prasad (Ruhani Sharma) along with her team comprising of Nataraj (Jeevan Kumar), is out to investigate the double murder case. What obstacles she faces, how the developments connected to her fiancee Sehadri Prasanna (Vishal Vasishta), colleague Kapil (Pradeep Rudra), Commissioner Shiva Kumar (Bannerjee), DGP Raghunandan (Sanjay Swarup), NIA officer Vikrant (Ravi Prakash) form the rest of the proceedings.
Ruhani Sharma performed her role well. She showed good expressions and emotions and made an impression on the screen in various situations. She showed the trauma and also the feelings when she had to deal with the suspension and also the expression in her zeal to realize her dream of joining NIA. She also showed good body language while addressing her superiors and cajoling her colleagues and subordinates and at the same time, directing them during the investigation. She in fact carried the film on her shoulders.
Jeevan Kumar as her subordinate evoked a few laughs and also showed the serious side of him to make viewers glued to him. Others got less screen presence and Vishal Vasishta appeared for a few minutes Pradeep Rudra is good while Bannerjee, Sanjay Swarup, and Ravi Prakash made their presence felt. Others performed according to their roles.
HER-Chapter 1 story penned by Sreedhar Swaraghav is about the female officer and how she goes along solving the cases. He highlighted the pain and trauma of a female police officer when she loses her dear one and faces suspension. Many such films came earlier but all those featured male police officers and Sreedhar used his creativity to show the feelings of a female police officer.
He starts the narration in an interesting manner and sticks to the point without deviating from the main point. He stayed away from including commercial elements and forced comedy. He showed all the characters in a natural and realistic manner. He continued in the same vein in the second half after the interesting interval twist. The twists and turns are unraveled in a neat manner and the film ends with the lead to the second part.
But it seems that the director Sreedhar Swaragav dragged the screenplay with unnecessary and repetitive scenes only to give the lead to the second part. One gets the impression that Sreedhar Swaraghav got inspired by Vishwak Sen-Sailesh Kolanu's HIT-The First Case. Had he included similar kind of intense elements, he could have created a sensation.
The film has only one song. Pawan came up with a romantic melody and it is neatly shot. He elevated the scenes with his background music, especially in the later half. Vishnu Besi's cinematography is good. He showed the investigation and interrogation scenes in a realistic and natural manner shooting on live locations. Chanakya Toorupu should have used his editing scissors to turn the film sleek. The slow pace ended up testing the patience of the viewers. Production values of Double Up Media are decent.
Altogether HER-Chapter 1 is an interesting investigative thriller. Sreedhar Swaraghav came up with a neat story and got the optimum performance from all the actors. Especially Ruhani Sharma performed her role exceedingly well. Sreedhar Swaraghava came up with a good screenplay and direction and kept the interest of the viewers intact till the climax. Had he done away with the lags and turned the screenplay racy, the result would have been even better. Considering all these points, Cinejosh goes with a 2.5 Rating for HER Chapter 1.