Movie Review: Euphoria

Out of all the movies the director, Gunasekhar, made in the last twenty-three years, only ‘Rudhramadevi’ became a decent hit, while all the others he directed were flops. Although he delivered multiple flops in a row, a section of people still believe in him because of films like Sogasu Chooda Tarama, Choodalani Vundi, and Okkadu, which he made at the start of his career. After delivering a disaster film, Shaakuntalam, in 2023 and losing a lot of money, he came up yet again with a social drama film, Euphoria. Bhoomika Chawla played a crucial role, and Dhurandhar fame Sara Arjun played the lead actress role in the movie. After being in the making for quite some time, the film was finally released in theatres today. Did the director, Gunasekhar, score a much-needed success? Did Sara Arjun’s newfound craze among the audience help ‘Euphoria’ in any way? How did Bhoomika Chawla do in a very crucial role? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

A group of five young entitled boys at the age of seventeen, ended up physically assaulting a girl of their age. What were the consequences the boys had to face? How did the girl and her family suffer as a result of the incident? What did the mother(Bhoomika Chawla) of one of the boys do, after she got to know about the heinous crime her son committed? Did the girl overcome the trauma and become successful in life? Did the boys end up being in jail for the rest of their lives or did they get a second chance to live life? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Sara Arjun looked good and fit into the role well. She delivered a decent performance. Vignesh Gavireddy played his role in a decent manner. Especially, his performance during the climax was good. The film had Bhoomika Chawla, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Nassar and a few other seasoned actors and almost all of them looked uninterested to delivered poor performances. The lip sync issues along with poor performances from most of the character artists, made the film almost unbearable.

Technicalities:

Kaala Bhairava attempted to give the film a trendy feel by using EDM and trance music for the background score, but it did not work out. There’s not much to talk about the songs. None of them worked in favour of the film in any way. Cinematography by Praveen K Porhan is good. His frames during a song in the second half looked very good on screen. He also captured the beauty of Hyderabad during the nights, very well. Prawin Pudi’s editing is poor. Fifteen to twenty minutes of editing, especially in the second half, would have at least made the film watchable. Let’s discuss the director, Gunasekhar’s work in the analysis section.

Positives:

1. Drama During The Climax

Negatives:

1. Outdated Writing
2. Poor Direction
3. Bad Performances
4. TV Serial Like Execution

Analysis:

Human conscience should also come under law. The law should be in a position to punish people who don’t adhere to their moral responsibilities. When a kid becomes a spoiled brat and ends up committing a heinous crime, his/her parents also should be punished along with the kid, for their bad upbringing – This is the core point of the film and it has a very good potential to make a gripping social drama film. But, a good point and equally good intentions do not guarantee a good film. It requires a gripping and emotionally charged narration to turn a good socially relevant point into a successful feature film. Full marks to the director. Gunasekhar, for selecting a socially relevant storyline. However, he failed big-time in turning it into an engaging film.

In a film with two and a half hours runtime, it was shocking to see a director of Gunasekhar’s calibre not come up with at least one gripping sequence for two hours and twenty-five minutes. The only saving grace is the last five minutes of the film. The drama during the last few minutes of the film worked to an extent and it is the only positive point to talk about. The entire first half of the film tests patience with ‘Neralu Ghoralu Episode’ like execution and the second half of the film tests the patience further with forever dragged sequences, unnecessary subplots and clueless narration.

It is ignorable when we see lip sync issues for non-Telugu actors in a Telugu film but in Euphoria, we get to see lip sync issues for the characters played by even the Telugu character artists. Although the film had many notable actors, almost all of them delivered poor performances, making it difficult for the audience to sit through. Physical abuse of a minor is a crime and the abusers should be punished severely but isn’t the legal age to enter into a bar or a pub in India without being accompanied by an adult, 18 years and in some states 21 years? Isn’t it the minor girl who goes to a pub without being accompanied by an adult, also eligible to get punished? Aren’t the parents of a minor girl who permit their daughter to go to a pub, are equally responsible? The director and his writing team completely ignored these basic points and came up with a clichéd film that bores the audience throughout.

Overall, Euphoria’s core point has good intentions and has the potential to become a very good socially relevant, engaging film, but poor writing and equally poor direction made the film unbearable to watch. Barring the drama in the last few minutes, it is a forgettable film and ended up as yet another disappointing outing from the director, Gunasekhar.

Final Verdict – Misfired Social Commentary

Rating – 2.25/5