Earnest is a word that could sum up the work of debut director Krishna Marimuthu and team. The work has finesse, the sensibilities seem right and the story revolves around a few truly likeable characters. But earnestness alone cannot keep one invested in the proceedings.
The strength of the film lies in the characters that form the endearing family, led by doctor Seetha Lakshmi (Revathy) and her husband Murali Krishna (Rao Ramesh). This couple could give a lot of youngsters relationship goals with their little skirmishes and the unflinching support they find in each other to take on the odds and work towards putting a smile on people’s faces.
There’s a nice scene in which Rao Ramesh likens his tug of war with his son Arjun (Naga Chaitanya) to ‘entertainment’. These moments involving the parents, Arjun, his sisters, friends and the young doctor who comes for an internship (Lavanya) unravel beautifully, accentuated by Vivek Sagar’s lilting music — ‘Enno Enno Bhaavale’ is a winner. Revathy, Rao Ramesh, Naga Chaitanya and Lavanya Tripathi are a treat to watch in these portions.
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When this happy family is torn apart, Arjun has to piece together the puzzle and find how and why his parents met with a brutal end. He is up against Naik (Srikanth) to protect the rest of his family. It’s an old trope of an ordinary guy having to draw upon all his strength to take on evil forces.
Naik is projected as a ruthless maniac who can turn the tables on the political bigwig under whose order he wrecks havoc in the city. Then, there’s the cop JD Shastri (Murali Sharma) whose plan of action hinges on what will better his chances of promotion. A duty-bound assistant (Ravi Varma) watches on, unable to find a method to his madness. Characters like these could have been a part of an interesting cat-and-mouse game. But they all end up as cardboard parts in a lazily-written narrative. Arjun is supposedly racing against time but we never get to feel that sense of urgency.
A whole lot of good actors are wasted in poorly-etched supporting parts, from Priyadarshi to Prashanti Tipirneni and Kireeti. If at all there’s some character growth, you see it in Arjun when he reveals his cards by and by. But these twists, too, offer no big surprise.
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Yuddham Sharanam ends up underwhelming like Arjun’s prototype drone that struggles to rise high in the initial portions. Later, a well executed sequence shows the drone coming in handy during a medical emergency. If only the rest of the film had something interesting to perk us up.
Yuddham Sharanam
Cast : Naga Chaitanya, Lavanya Tripathi, Revathy, Rao Ramesh
Direction : Krishna Marimuthu
Storyline : An ordinary guy’s hunt to avenge his parents’ killers.