Dhanya Balakrishnan's Jagame Maaya directed by Sunil Puppala is streaming on Disney+Hotstar on December 15,2022. The film's teaser and trailer generated bit interest among movie lovers and let us see what Jagame Maaya offered.
Jagame Maya's story is all about love, romance, betting, and betrayal. Anand (Teja Ainampudi) splurges money on IPL betting in Vijayawada. Later to escape from the debtors, he heads to Hyderabad. Anand who is used to leading a happy life conning others comes across a beautiful divorcee Chitra (Dhanya Balakrishnan). He plans to woo her and convince her to marry him so that he can lead a luxurious life. Where this leads to, whether Anand is able to woo Chitra, what happened to her husband Ajay (Chaitanya Rao), software company owner Dev (Prithviraj) should be found on the screen.
Jagame Maya story selected by newcomer Sunil Puppala is a romantic crime thriller. Sunil Puppala started the narration in an exciting manner talking about betting, IPL, etc. However, he quickly loses the plot harping on to highlight the character of the antagonist. In the process, the pace dipped drastically and from then on all the scenes turned out to be routine, monotonous, and testing. Only during the interval block, little interest is generated. The second half is a little better compared to the first half with Sunil Puppala unveiling the twists one by one and the pace picking up. The twists though routine is shown at a fast pace but the rushed climax and the unrealistic ending makes viewers wonder what the director is up to. Whether he is planning for a sequel is not clearly depicted. Even the tagline Instant Karma did not do justice to the story.
Dhanya Balakrishnan tried to carry the film on her shoulders. Despite her best efforts, she failed to make an impact. Chaitanya Rao is ok in the role of Dhanya Balakrishnan's husband. Only in the second half, he appears. Prithviraj with his histrionics ended up irritating the viewers. Teja Ainampudi is ok in her role as a con man. Others tried to make an impact in inconsequential roles. None of the cast came up with impactful performances.
Ajay Arasada's music is nothing to rave about and background music is just ok. Rahul Machineni's Cinematography is in sync with the storyline. Editing left a lot to be desired. Production values are ok.
Altogether, Jagame Maya of Sunil Puppala is nothing but a jugglery of many things. Sunil Puppala tried to highlight many things and tried to thrill viewers but he instead ended up giving immense torture to the viewers. He not only failed with his story, screenplay, and direction. His inexperience showed and he failed on all fronts and also did not succeed in getting the optimum out of the actors. They looked clueless and did as they wished and the same applies to the technical crew. This lack of coordination resulted in a mediocre product. Finally Jagame Maya is a clueless world. Considering all these aspects, Cinejosh goes with a 1 Rating to Jagame Maya.