Talented cinematographer Nizar Shafi turned director with Seven. Havish is seen romancing six hot beauties. Does this film restrict for glamour show or contains potential content one would expect from an engaging suspense thriller.
Software employee Ramya (Nandita Swetha) files a police case of her missing husband Karthik (Havish). Inspector (Rahman) finds that, Ramya's story is pretty similar with another case filed by Jenny (Anisha Ambrose) whose missing husband is also Karthik. When the Inspector decides to file cheating case on Karthik, another similar case comes on his table by a speech-impaired woman (Aditi Arya) in Chennai. Even before inspector and his team comes out of third shock, another lady Priya (Tridha) also files similar case on Karthik. Who’s this Karthik? What’s his connection with these four ladies? How triangular love story of Krishna Murthy (Havish), Saraswathi (Regina) and Bhanu (Pujita) leads to many crimes in the past and present?
Telugu audience hardly had films in psychological thriller genre. Rarely when makers had come up with engaging scripts and convincing stories, films in this genre work out because bringing in believability to such scripts require lots of intensity and depth. So writers don’t experiment as risk factor is very high relative to other genres. Proven cameraman Nizar Shafi took the risk for his debut directorial Seven which is written by Ramesh Varma. Idea of searching the mysterious person who’s behind several crimes is an interesting premise. Initial episodes build lots of curiosity to a certain point from where narration turned boring and exhaistive. As the main twist in story unfolds only the second half, it’s a real test for audience where a talented actress showing her acting prowess suffering from psychological disorder. The drama in climax episodes is no less than agony.
Given that, Nizar Shafi basically is a top class cinematographer, camera angles are intriguing. Interval episode is bang on because of his skilled camera work. Chaitan Bharadwaj’s background score complimented the scenes well and added mysterious mood. Production values are splendid for film of its range.
Onto artists, Havish still looks the same from his debut film. He sticks to single expression throughout. Even though his role has lots of scope to perform, Havish failed to utilize. Regina is the real surprise package. Her psychotic acts somehow will not connect to Telugu audience for sure. All the other heroines are restricted to fill glamour part. Rahman did his part quite efficiently.
Hardly Any
Seven Review Drawbacks:
Almost Everything
Suspense thrillers should offer sustained thrills and keep audience hooked, edge of seat as the plot builds towards climax. These nerve breaking moments usually arise when the main character is placed in an alarming situation in breaking the ice. Nonetheless, main reason for Seven to fall on its nose is tasteless writing and bad execution. Nizar Shafi is not a director material as he botched to present that mind-blowing twist intriguin. Graph dips down exponentially in second half where the real point in story is unveiled.
First half begins on interesting note with homicides of Havish’s family members by an anonymous person in 80’s. Story turns further interesting with three different women complaining about missing husbands. Excitement factor here is, they are married to one same person. However, slower-paced narration killed the interest. Interval episode is acceptable but Nizar Shafi's camera work enhance the frightening factor.
Second half too starts on tedious note with Tridha filing similar ‘husband missing’ case on Havish. In no time, story shifts to flashback where triangular love story is narrated in most uneventful manner. After this atrocious period centered on Regina closed off, then the last portions are further distressing.
All in all, Seven is a film without second thoughts you can escape for your own good. Although the film’s plot is intriguing, poor screenplay and worse direction played spoilsport. CJ goes with 1.5 stars and the film is unquestionably going to become a dud at box office.