Young and Talented Naresh Agasthaya is starring in a webseries titled Vikkatakavi. The webseries directed by Pradeep Maddali is streaming on Zee 5 platform starting from 28 November 2024. Let us findout what thrills and frills, Vikkatakavi offered to movie lovers.
Vikkatakavi story revolves around a detective and how he unravels the mysterious happenings in the Amaragiri village in the 70s and the secret and the curse surrounding it. Osmania University Professor after seeing his student Ramakrishna (Naresh Agasthya)'s inquisitive and analytical skills and the way he solves the tough cases for the cops in Hyderabad, believes that he can resolve the mystery in the Amaragiri place.
Ramakrishna who is need of money for her mother's treatment, reaches Amaragiri to unravel the mystery behind the happenings. Where this leads to and how it is connected to Devathala Gutta and what role Amaragiri King Raja Narasimha Rao (Shiju Abdul Rashid), his son Mahadeva (Tarak Ponnappa ), daughter in law Gouri (Ramya Durga Krishnan),his grand daughter Lakshmi (Megha Akash), her father ,MLA Raghupathi (Raghu Kunche),Veeranna (Amit Tiwari) plays form the interesting twists and turns.
Naresh Agasthya performed well in the role coming up with subtle expressions and emotions. His body language is apt for the role. Megha Akash performed well and looked beautiful in traditional attire.
Tarak Ponnappa made his presence felt in his role. Shiju Menon, Raghu Kunche, Raviteja Nannimalla, Amit Tiwari, did justice to their roles and helped in taking the narration forward.
Vikkatakavi story is provided by Pradeep Maddali. He came up with an interesting story and started the narration in an interesting and gripping manner.For much of the narration, Pradeep did not deviate from the main plot. But at times he seemed lost and this impacted the narration. Little fine-tuning of the script would have added value to the story. After the interesting start, the narration turned predictable and he did not focus much on including a few more twists and turns.
The first two episodes Whispers of The Cursed and Echoes of The Unseen in the webseries go off smoothly with interesting and intriguing elements. Director Pradeep Maddali ensures that the mystery elements are unraveled in a gripping way but then the third episode Blood Moon Rising loses pace. However the director made up for it with the remaining episodes increasing the curiosity levels.
When everything is going on smoothly interestingly and excitingly, the fourth and fifth episodes Lost Secrets,,Tales of The Unburnt though generates interest , the slow pace turns out to be spoilsport with many scenes dragging the proceedings ending up testing the patience of the viewers. Same is the case with the final sixth episode Unleashing The Wraith and here viewers get a feeling that that proceedings could have been trimmed.
The music of Ajay Aradasa is good. Cinematography of Shoeb Siddique is in sync with the story. He showed the 1970s atmosphere in a beautiful and impactful manner. However the CG work demanded more quality. Sai Babu Talluri's editing could have been far better as there are many scenes that slowed the pace of the narration. Production values are good.
Altogether, Vikkatakavi is a decent thriller. Naresh Agasthya performed well and director Pradeep Maddali with interesting concept got good output from his cast and crew. The Telangana accent appeals to viewers instantly. Little fine-tuning of the script, doing away with predictable moments and including few twists and turns would have added more sheen to the story. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 3 star rating for Vikkatakavi.