418 Movie Review

It’s rare to see horror-thriller movies in Telugu, and even rarer to see one of the top production houses make one. When the production house, Mythri Movie Makers, in association with one of the top directors in India, Prashanth Neel, as a presenter, announced a horror-thriller film titled, 418, expectations were created among the audience almost instantly. Kirtan Nadagouda, an associate director of Prashanth Neel, wrote the story and directed the film. Kirtan Nadagouda, earlier worked as an associate director for the KGF series films and worked as a co-director on Salazar. After being in production for quite some time and after facing issues multiple times with the censor board team, the makers finally released the film in theatres. Did the film live up to the tag ‘scariest movie ever’, which the makers used during the promotions? Do the story and the making of the film have enough substance to become memorable in the horror genre? Did the debutant director, Kirtan Nadagouda, make a successful debut? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

How far can a woman named, Devika(Chaithra J. Achar) go in fulfilling her dream of becoming a mother? What happens when she chooses an extreme way of killing people in the name of Naramedha/narabali? What happens when a woman gets so obsessed with fulfilling a dream? What happens when a person gets so obsessed with an ‘act’ and ends up getting completely consumed by that ‘act’? How did an obsessed woman try to achieve her dream even after her death? How did the soul of the obsessed woman end up getting stuck in a medical college hostel room after her death? What did two freshmen friends(Surya Raj Veerabathini and Charan Lakkaraju) solve the mystery behind the room no. 418? – are the points the film tried to narrate to the audience during its two-and-a-half-hour runtime.

Performances:

Chaithra J. Achar in the lead role as the lead actor came up with a compelling performance. As a woman who’s desperate to become a mother and then as a bloodthirsty evil woman, she did a very good job in her performance. Surya Raj Veerabathini and Charan Lakkaraju in the roles of freshmen in the medical college, were adequate. Irumudi fame, Ramesh Indira, in a crucial role made his presence felt. Preethi Pagadala in the role of a flamboyant teenager, did a decent job. The decision to go with many Kannada actors misfired. It failed to give the feeling of watching a straight Telugu film because of the unfamiliar faces.

Technicalities:

Music director, Venky GG, came up with an interesting background score throughout the film. He tried his best to infuse tension and a scary atmosphere with his background score but the flaws in the screenplay were way too many to cover them up with music. Dinesh Divakar’s cinematography was apt for the genre of the film. The visuals and the lighting he used worked well to give a certain mood to the proceedings throughout the film. Editing by Akul Avinash should have been much better, especially in the first half. A runtime of two and a half hours worked against the film. Ullas Hydoor’s production design helped to give a dark yet good look and feel to the film. Production values by Mythri Movie Makers were standard. Let’s discuss the writer and the director, Kirtan Nadagouda’s work in detail in the analysis section.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Background Score
2.⁠ ⁠Initial Few Minutes

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Unexciting Screenplay
2.⁠ ⁠Lack of Scary Moments
3.⁠ ⁠Runtime
4.⁠ ⁠Lack of Emotional Depth

Analysis:

For any film, a successful marketing campaign has become increasingly significant these days. To instantly grab the attention of the audience before the release of a film, the respective marketing teams at times go overboard and overpromise through the promotional campaigns. The overpromise may help the audience to step into theatres on the day of the release. Still, if the content does not meet the set expectations, the chances of the audience getting disappointed are very high. This is exactly what happened with, 418. Yes, the makers of the film faced many issues with the censor board. The board members raised severe concerns and denied giving the certification. The makers indeed reached the revised committee and eventually managed to get the certification. But, did the Censor Board raise objections because the film is very scary or was there any other reason? What we were told by the makers during the promotional campaign was that the Censor Board objected to releasing the film because the horror elements in the film were extremely scary and the makers went on to say that it is ‘the scariest film ever’. However, after entering the theatre, it won’t take much time for us the audience to realise that the overpromising by the makers was indeed a bluff to grab instant attention. Forget about being extremely scary; the film offers hardly any scary moments.

The film starts with the line ‘The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. But…..’ and then we get to see an interesting sequence where a woman kills herself. The director succeeded in instantly creating curiosity among the audience during the initial few minutes and after that, everything that we see on screen neither offers excitement nor thrill nor scary moments. We may have connected with the proceedings had the film been promoted as a psychological thriller drama, but for a horror drama film, the screenplay used in, 418, to scare the audience was not sufficient. The entire first half of the film unfolds in a very lethargic and unexciting manner. Even the twist used during the pre-interval sequence failed to generate any excitement. Yes, we should not expect a horror Drama film to be logically foolproof but it’s very difficult to connect with a film when basic details were also ignored while writing the screenplay, in the name of cinematic liberties. One question that comes to your mind while watching the film is – Why in the world, hundred and seventy students agree to stay in a haunted house turned into a medical college residential hostel? After paying lakhs in donations and fees, why did the parents of all these students agree to send their kids to live in such a scary building that even the road transport bus drivers refuse to pass through?. The film had many such silly mistakes and all these flaws never let us really connect with the film.

After a not-so-exciting first half, the film needed an exciting second half with an interesting backstory. The director indeed chose an interesting concept for the backstory. In an attempt to fulfil her dream of becoming a mother, a woman turned into a nightmare not just for the people around her, but for herself as well – This is the core point which the director wants to narrate through the film. However, the execution of the point lacked impact. We neither feel empathetic for the character, nor get scared when the character turns into a monster. Since the core point involves motherhood and pregnancy, during the making of the film, it appeared that the director was extremely conscious of the possible objections from the censor board and ended up narrating the backstory without any impact. Once the backstory is revealed in a very unexciting manner, the remaining proceedings until the pre-climax unfold in a very predictable manner. There was an attempt to end the film with a twist but it appeared very convenient and obvious.

Another drawback of the film is the excessive Kannada flavour. It is a film which is made by a Kannada director, presented by a Kannada filmmaker, and acted by many Kannada actors, set in Karnataka, has a backdrop of Yakshagana, a traditional folk dance form popular in Coastal Karnataka districts and has two Kannada songs. While watching the film, we as an audience wonder why the makers made the film in Telugu. They should’ve made it in Kannada and released the Telugu-dubbed version in theatres. The unfamiliar backdrop and the actors, made it very difficult to believe it as a straight Telugu film. Overall, 418, has an interesting core point, a good takeoff and a couple of mildly scary moments but other than that, the film offers nothing interesting. An unexciting first half followed by an equally unexciting second half, made it a tiresome watch.

Bottom Line – Empty Vessels Make The Most Noise

Rating: 2.25/5

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