Young and stylish Bellamkonda Sai Srinivas after attempting regular mass subjects to score his first commercial hit has now come up with a thriller subject, Kavacham. Joined by two glamorous ladies Kajal Aggarwal and Mehreen Pirzada in debutant Mamilla Sreenivas, will Sai's craving for first hit end with Kavacham? Let’s see…
Vijay (Bellamkonda Sai Srinivas), a sincere and tough police officer leads happy life with his widowed mother who always encourages him to be truthful to job. He adores Samyuktha (Kajal Agarwal) who works at a coffee shop and she too has good feelings for him, though nobody expresses love to each other. Meanwhile, Vijay saves a girl Lavanya (Mahreen Kaur) followed by an accident to Vijay’s mother forces him to take a weird decision that changes his life completely. He is trapped in a kidnap case as both Samyuktha and Lavanya go missing. Who’s behind it? What’s the actual intent? How Vijay cracks the case?
Thriller scripta have to be dealt very smartly. Flat or predictable narration never delivers a thrilling experience. First timer Sreenivas Mamilla missed this basic logic and in the process of making Kavacham a commercial film, he opted on wrong casting, multiple clues left behind to unthread the mystery and also the hiccups in storytelling. Most importantly, he wasted adequate time on love tracks which served no good purpose. Regrettably, romance was also unpleasant. Including multiple threads to tighten the narrative further does the damage. However, Kavacham looked lavish and vivid visually, thanks to the excellent support from technical crew. Cinematography by Chota K Naidu is commendable while Thaman’s BGM is captivating. Except for a melody track, other songs are ordinary. Chota K Prasad’s editing is sober, needed lots of trimming. Production values are top notch like Sai Srinivas’s previous films.
Onto artists, Bellamkonda Srinivas is showing improvement with each film. His dances, fights are thoroughly professional. But, the young hero is displaying disability to pick right subjects again and again. Both Kajal Agarwal and Mehreen Kaur are gorgeous in ultra-modern outfits but aren’t given scope to perform. Neil Nitin Mukesh is manly handsome and is a wrong choice. Posani Krishna Murali was routine and boring. Harshavardhan Rane, Mukesh Rishi and other artiats did not make any impact.
Cinematography
Production Values
Heroines Glamour
Story
Screenplay
Direction
Wasted Casting
Lack Of Fun, Thrill
Kavacham is definitely not a proper thriller as promoted. It badly missed the most needed suspense, excitement, anticipation and anxiety to keep the audience edge of their seats. Twists were feebly handled. Commercializing the very core element further spoiled. Instead of unnecessary heroism, had Mamilla went honest with scripting and direction, result would have been far better.
First half begins with a tip-off on film’s actual twist which revolves around a kidnap case. The moment Bellamkonda Srinivas makes entry with an encounter; unwanted heroism, punch dialogues which are unwanted for. Back to back build up scenes meant to elevate heroism are unnecessary for a script of this nature. Then love track has zero feel to sense. Just when audience are soon to lose patience, interest is pulled with an accident episode followed by kidnap plotting and a thrilling episode at shopping mall. However, the guessing game ends as soon as Kajal’s family is introduced. Interval twist is only to create confusion and cheat audience.
Later half starts with Srinivas taking up challenge to unravel the kidnap mystery. Flashback love scenes from Kajal’s view point aren't charming. Srinivas’s tricks to reach the kidnapper are so amateurish. The so-called hidden mystery unlocked towards pre climax is not at all gripping as clues left behind in first half are more than enough for minimum knowledge cinema buff to point the finger. Movie ends on heavy duty action climax and lovers reuniting for all smiles.
All in all, Kavacham is a poorly made action thriller lacking in thrill and mystery. Bellamkonda’s bettered performance, heroines, top-notch visuals and lavish production values are the only saving grace. CJ goes with 2 stars and Box Office wise the film may not shine due to lack of fundamental entertaining elements.