Katha Movie Review. First on Net

Behind the Movie Katha: First things first, it was always delight to watch movies from the banner of “Just Yellow” as the banner is known for its innovative story lines, peculiar concepts and strong narration. After watching “Little Soldiers”, “Aithe”, “Anukokundaa Oka Roju” kind of movies from Gangaraju Gunnam, cinegoers have waited for a long time to listen their “Katha” (Story). With wonderful actress Genelia in the main lead, this movie has grasped the enough attention.

In the Movie Katha:  Movie starts in Jharkhand where a college Principal Prasada Rao makes the rowdy students in college arrested by police. Very soon, these goons will be killed by a Police officer who is once a student of Prasada Rao. Now, whole of the location shifts to Araku Valley where Chitra(Genelia) joins the Valley School as a teacher. Chitra resides in a bungalow away from the school and every night she is scared by some unknown persons who are trying to kill her. Circle Inspector Shanmukha Rao (Prakash Raj) and Constable Raju (Shafee) find out that Chitra is the same girl who was treated in a mental hospital for a year and now she landed in Araku for finding the solace. Chitra is none other then the daughter of Prasada Rao who was Principal of the College in Jharkhand and whole of his family is brutally murdered by the student goons who were arrested during the start of the movie. Chitra after witnessing these murders become a mentally disurbed girl suffering with Psychosis, Hallucination, Haemophobia and Autophobia.   
In parallel is  hero of the movie, Krishna (Arun Aditya) who is thriving to become a movie director falls instantly in love with Chitra and knows about the mental problems of Chitra from Shanmukha Rao. In this mean time Chitra witnesses a murder in which a masked villain kills a girl. Police initially believe her but soon after getting aware of her mental condtion, Shanmukha Rao tries to close the case.
Although  Krishna and Chitra fall in love but Krishna advices Chitra to go for a mental hospital for treatment and comeback leaving all her fears. At this instant when Chitra gets ready to join the mental hospital for the second time in her life, here gets the clue that murder which Chitra witnessed was not hallucination but a reality. Then Krishna along with his friends lay a trap to find the murderer, two of his friends along with Constable Raju die but it was a surprise that Circle Inspector Shamukha Rao (Prakash Raj) was the murderer. How does story go on from now? What happened to  Chitra? forms the rest of the “Katha” and that is climax.

Values of the Movie Katha: Genelia who always give her best to the roles she select has delivered the goods once again. Genelia fits perfectly to the role of Chitra who suffers with mental agony. Chitra’s struggle to get rid of the fears, to get rid of the murderer are clearly visible in the face of Genelia. Gennie was at her atmost best with expressive eyes. Hero Arun Aditya is a young boy who still needs to work on his body language, but on the whole his performace was okay. To be rated as a standard hero, one requires consistence in the screen presence and soon Arun Aditya adheres to this point, he would become a fine actor. Next to speak about is Prakash Raj who has performed as usual but audience doesn’t find any difference in his role when compared to his past roles. Remaining roles including Shafee, Raghu babu, Jaya Lalitha and Tulasi have nothing much to perform.

Srinivas Raaga, the story writer, script writer and director of “Katha” has obviously disappointed the patrons with his over hard work. Srinivas Raaga has undoubtedly worked on the stroy and script, but the required attention and concentration needed on each and every role was very low. Audience looked confused with with improper admixture of science related concepts with thriller story. The result was that, “Katha” never looked to be an interesting movie at any point of time. Music by SK Balachandran was good for two songs while background lacked the required punch. Photography by Andrew A caught the beautiful locales of Araku but it again was half done when it comes to thrilling scenes. Editing by Marthand Venkatesh was also average as movie was unnecessarily extended in second half with useless emotional scenes which haven’t done any justice to the story. There can’t be anything great to comment on Production values as whole of the movie was shot only and only in Araku.

Out of the Movie Katha: With Director’s inability to run the movie on right path of narration clearly visible, “Katha” neither has great story nor great script. Except Genelia’s performance, there is nothing that can be highlighted in the movie. Gangaraju Gunnam’s flavor was completely missing in this “Katha” and who ever comes to the movie with any expectations will be 100% disappointed and return with swollen faces. If first half goes in lighter vain with nothing much happening n the story, in second half you understand something is happening with the story and something happening in your head too. 

Cinejosh verdict of the Movie Katha: A disappointing fare and can be rated as a below average movie from Just Yellow. Its Just Unbearable.