Charulatha Kannada Movie Review – Priyamani's best till date

Indian audience have witnessed wide-variety of movies that featured our lead actors in twin roles. But the subject on conjoined twins or Siamese twins remained untouched all these years in the multilingual Indian film industry. However, Charulatha starring Priyamani is first of its kind made by renowned Kannada actor-producer Dwarakish.

As the makers of Charulatha claimed, the movie, which is made in four languages, is a remake of Thai movie Alone. For the first time, Priyamani, who was not seen in female-centric projects, has played the role of twins and has completely justified her roles. Charulatha is a suspense-horror-thriller directed by P Kumar, who had earlier directed blockbuster Only Vishnuvardhana starring Sudeep.

Charulatha revolves around the conjoined twins and their love story. They (Charu and Latha) were together like one body and one soul until Ravi (Skanda) enters their lives. His love for Charu divides the twins and creates lots of frustration between them. This leads her mother (Saranya Ponvannan) to separate their attached body but one among the twins dies. The mystery begins, as the unhappy soul starts seeking revenge.

The story of Charulatha is completely engaging with a right amount of thrill and suspense. But it would have been good if it had more number of spine-chilling moments. Having made the audience sit on their toes till the end, the director has failed to deliver a fitting climax. Nonetheless, it does not matter to a large extent and emerges as a good entertainer.

Priyamani has delivered her best performance till date. Her stellar performance is the strength of the story. Hats off to the director and cinematographer for shooting her conjoined portions without errors. Debutant Skanda is overshadowed by Priyamani but he has done a decent job. However, Saranya Ponvanan and Seetha have not got much to do in Charulatha. Ravi Shankar's character is waste.

P Kumar, the captain of the ship, has come up with a good subject this time. Though the movie could not be labelled as a great flick, Charulatha gives you a different experience and can be said as a 'paisa-vasool' outing. The attempt to make the film on conjoined twins has to be appreciated. Panner Selvam's cinematography is excellent but the songs composed by Sundar C Babu are not up to the mark, even though the background score is good.

Verdict: Priyamani steals the show.