Movie :Chandrakala
Rating :2/5
Cast: Hansika, Vinay, Sundar, Andrea, Lakshmi Rai and others
Directed by: C. Sundar
Produced by: Swetha, Teja
Banner: CK Entertainments
Music by: Bharathwaj
Release Date: 2014-12-19
Chandrakala is the Telugu dubbed version of successful Tamil Horror Comedy Aranmanai. Hansika, Vinay, Sundar and Andrea played the lead roles in it.
Story :
Madhavi and Murali (Andrea and Vinay) visit their mansion for one last time before they sell it off. It is a haunted mansion and many of the inmates gets killed one after the other in a mysterious way. Madhavi’s brother and Lawyer Ravi (Sundar) tries to find out the mystery behind it. That is how he knows about Chandrakala (Hansika) an innocent village girl who was killed in that very mansion. She was in love with Murali before she died and Chandrakala wants to get back with him by owning the body of Madhavi.
Performances:
Hansika has limited screen time despite playing the title role. She looked beautiful in that village girl attire. We get to see a different Hansika who has mostly done urbane characters till now. Andrea played the pivotal role in this film and she is good. She did her best to pull it off.
However we have seen better performances from actresses like Shobhana, Soundarya and Jyothika in similar roles. Vinay of Vaana fame played one of the male leads. He is limited to songs and few scenes. Sundar did alright. Lakshmi Rai doesn’t go unnoticed with her sizzling act. Santhanam did his bit on the comedy front. All others have chipped in whenever needed.
On the Technical Front:
C. Sundar’s old fashioned direction doesn’t excite much. He did well to keep things flowing despite age old story and screenplay. We expect an engrossing film with such backdrop, but Chandrakala hardly keeps you engaged. Screenplay is not impressive with far too many clichés thrown into the narrative. Music by Bharathwaj is good in parts. There is nothing much to write about the cinematography and editing. Dialogues are not impressive.
Analysis:
Chandrakala is a cocktail of many films that were made in this genre. Story and screenplay reminds us of Chandramukhi and Nagavalli. Unfortunately Chandrakala couldn’t match the standards of Chandramukhi. It is on par with Nagavalli at times. Glamorous heroines and noted star cast helped this film to score in Tamil. It will not enjoy similar fate in Telugu though. We have seen better horror comedies like Prema Katha Chitram in recent times.
Even Geetanjali starring Anjali is far better than this horror comedy that fails on many levels. Few scary moments in the first half and captivating climax are the plus points of this film besides glamorous heroines. The film nosedives in the second half with a very bad flashback part that is straight out of eighties movies.
Sundar made valiant efforts to pull things back during the climax, but it is too late by then. Chandrakala lacks novelty and looks like a badly made television serial at times. There aren’t many thrills in this horror film and the comedy is too bland for our tastes. This movie will fail to scare even the six year olds. Now you know what to expect out of this horror movie, right?
Verdict: Fails to Frighten!
