Diary – Review

Chukka Kalyanram has brought out another suspense thriller with Sivaji as the hero again after his blockbuster Mantra. The thriller penned by Yandamuri Virendranath has been directed by Matchakanti Diary revolves around a bungalow and a book. Though it was rumoured that the film is a sequel to Mantra, it has nothing to do with it.

Vamsi (Sivaji), the son of a realtor wants to buy a big independent bungalow and meets Kanchu Kanakayya @ KK (Dr Sivaprasad) and finalises one and pays the price through cheque. Vamsi tells his driver (Chinnikrishna) that they would finalise the deal the next morning and decides to stay back in the bungalow. Casually, he goes to a nearby village Jatara and saves a girl called Maya (Shraddha Das) when a person (Jeeva) tries to molest her. Maya follows Vamsi to the bungalow, but he does not allow her inside. When it starts raining, he is forced to invite her inside.

While going round the house, Vamsi finds a big library inside and a diary dated 2002. Though the writer has clearl mentioned that it is indecent to read some other"s diary, Vamsi continues with it. Vamsi visualizes all the incidents written in the diary. The writer of the diary Albert (Sridhara Rao) was in love with Mona (Mousami Udeshi) and they were leading a happy life. Unfortunately, Mona soon suffered from blood cancer and was about to die in a couple of months. Depressed over the situation, Albert could not concentrate on business and suffered loss. Later by accident, Mona died in Albert's hands and he cremated her in their garden. As everyone knew that she was suffering from blood cancer he made everyone believe that she was sent to the US for treatment.

Under strange circumstances, Albert finds Mona again, and is forced to believe that she is none but a devil. As the diary stops at that point, it is believed that Mona killed him. Incidentally, in the diary there is a mention about a portrait and Vamsi who sees it, becomes dumbfounded as the portrait is similar to Maya. Vamsi finds some change in Maya"s behaviour too. He starts facing hallucination that Mona and Maya are not different but the same and that Maya is a devil. Maya pushes herself towards Vamsi and dies accidentally in a freak mishap. The police begin investigation and find that the house belonged to one Sastry (Yandamuri) from Kerala and not Albert. The police officer (Harshavardhan) goes to Kerala along with Vamsi. There, Sastry explains that it was a novel penned by him and not really a diary and that what Vamsi noticed is nothing but pure illusion. However, the death of Maya is real. The film ends with the police arresting Vamsi on charges of murder.

PLUS:
The movement of the entire film is completely based on screenplay. Though a novice, Radhakrishna has been able to explain what was in his mind onto celluloid. Mantra Anand"s background score is another highlight of the film. Sivaji, the producers" hero, has performed well and has once again proved that he is the best for such films. There are very few dialogues in the film as the entire film is nothing but a narration from a book. Cinematography by Srinivasa Reddy is adequate and art by Vishal is impressive. Gauthamraju has once again proved his effeciency by making the film crisp.

MINUS:
Though the script, screenplay and direction by Ramakrishna are okay, there are a few lapses which could have been avoided had he concentrated more on the film. The subject dates back to a story in 2002. But you can find Saskshi newspaper in the film. While the milestone shows Tagarapuvalasa, a bus belonging to CBIT, Hyderabad, passes by. You can find such silly mistakes in the important scenes. Another minus point is the lack of comedy. One should not have expected comedy from such suspense thrillers but the average audience who go to a theatre for entertainment would miss it.

REMARKS:
Several films came on the screen with the subject 'hallucinations". However, director Machakanti Ramakrishna has chosen to bring out the film in a narrative way by recreating the situations visually. This kind of narration helped in running the story smoothly. The absence of mass elements might keep them off, the film would definitely attract the youth and class audiences. The film may run with the above average rating because of the nice movement of subject and in maintaining the suspense thriller element with perfect and gripping screenplay.

Cast: Sivaji, Shraddha Das, Sridhar Rao, Mousami Udeshi, Dr Sivaprasad, Jeeva, Srinivas, Harshavardhan, Kamal, Chinnikrishna and others
Credits: Story – Yandamuri Virendranath, Dialogues – Arun, Cinematography – V. Srinivasa Reddy, Editing – Gauthamraju, Music – Mantra Anand, Art – Vishaal, Action – Nandu, Presents – Meghashyam Bokam, Producer – Chukka Kalyanram, Dialogues and direction – Machakanti Ramakrishna.
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