Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/awe-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/
Late in Prasanth Varma’s Awe, a barista named Meera (Regina Cassandra) finds a Rubik’s Cube in the basement of a restaurant. She tosses it into a dark corner — but a few seconds later, it’s tossed back at her, mysteriously (and fully) solved. That’s the movie in a nutshell. Awe is the Rubik’s Cube — it’s made up of six stories bordering on (and locking into) one another. And Varma is Meera, tossing his movie-puzzle to the audience in the darkened theatre, hoping we can crack it. (Don’t worry if you can’t. The last few minutes do it for you.) The first story (after a bit of a prologue, featuring Kajal Aggarwal) looks like a romcom: a girl has dinner with her parents so she can tell them about her lover. The tale comes with a twist.
The second story is another genre: call it existential Disney. It involves a man who applies for the job of a chef, and his co-star is a… fish. The cook’s name is Nala. The other characters come with equally mythical names: Krishna, Radha, Meera, Raghuram, Vaidehi, Shiva, Parvathi, Kali, Moksha. Varma doesn’t shy away from grand conceits, and his grandest conceit — hat tip, the Bhagavad Gita — is in the lines of the song that plays over the opening credits: “The entire universe is hidden in me.” It’s a clue. Through the first half, the stories seem disconnected and we wonder what’s going on. Does the segment with the watchman who’s working on a time machine hold the answer? Now, we’re in the realm of sci-fi. Is Awe a compilation of alternative narratives in the space-time continuum?
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
shaviswa
March 1, 2018
From whatever movies I have seen and enjoyed, I feel that a movie is good when “it happens” – when the director just flows with the story, screenplay, characterizations and narrating the story on the screen. When the director tries too hard – as was evident from some of what you had mentioned in this review – the effort is pretty evident and distracts the viewer from the film.
This is the difference that I perceive when I see a Kamal film directed by a good director vs made by Kamal himself. The latter tries too hard to be different, too hard to tell a message.
Looks like Awe falls into the bucket of a director trying too hard to make a good film.
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Pavan
March 1, 2018
Spoilers ahead:
Thanks for the review, BR. I could not observe the Rubik cube metaphor, but now when thinking, it makes even more sense. The one who returns it is scary. Similarly, the one who ends the film is scary enough for the common public to keep their mouth shut.
And, if we notice something, Kajal has the portions where things look subdued, opposed to the vibrancy and eccentricity of the other stories around. And at the end, what happens is almost like a fall of cards, the kings, queens, aces, and the numbers, all find a place near Bhagavad Gita as one single pack of cards.
I am happy that this film did well. For those who don’t know, you can hear the producer in the film itself, thanks to Nala’s costar, the fish. This was that one segment I wished be made into a full length film. But once the last ten minutes end, I felt that the subplots were necessarily important.
PS: The Asathoma sargamaya… scene reminded me of Narayana chants during deaths. Hinting at liberation?
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kaizokukeshav
March 1, 2018
Thinking back, the girl shows Krishna statue to Murali Sharma which indicates that Kajal pacifies her ego with the thought of God. But the director went too subtle with such scenes and gave didn’t care to explain movie which appears for 95% of runtime. Even Nolan had to teach the audience about inception before showcasing it.
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pjarugula
March 1, 2018
I may need to watch it again, but did you feel that the individual stories reveal something more about Kajal’s character than what she isn’t already telling us at the end during the big reveal? I loved the concept, but felt it did not completely work because these stories did not really succeed in fleshing out her character as they could have. However, you are completely right. There are a lot of Telugu films that have come out which have been praised for being non-mainstream, but this is the one of the very few that is genuinely bold. Quite a film to tackle with your first time directing.
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Anu Warrier
March 1, 2018
Hmm… my knowledge of Telugu films is limited to the handful I watch every year. This one sounds interesting. Should watch.
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Aman
March 1, 2018
Brangan a long time reader but commenting for the first time. This movie has received a very mixed opinion in telugu with people terming it as awesome and awful at the same time. Do you think that the fact that such films are even being made in telugu should be applauded or is large scale audience acceptance necessary as it is absent for this film with only one section of audience liking it
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pjarugula
March 2, 2018
Aman: Even if this film were made in Tamil or Hindi, it would only find acceptance in one section of the audience. The fact that the film even recovered the money invested into it is an achievement in Telugu where such kind of experimental cinema is typically outright rejected.
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Jayram
March 2, 2018
Thanks for the review, BR. Now to share my thoughts on Awe. Bear in mind, this will have huge spoilers (those who haven’t watched the movie, please don’t read this post).
I had been anticipating this movie when it was announced last year. From the looks of it, I thought it was going to be a live action version of Inside Out. I never heard of the director before, but I found the trailer to be intriguing. When the release date neared, I made sure I would watch it in theaters without fail. And the 12 bucks I spent in Edison, NJ was worth it.
For a long time, I have been sick and tired of hero worshipping mass Telugu movies which are unentertaining, unrealistic, cater to the lowest denominator and misogynistic. The days where the best of the best (NTR, ANR, SVR, Savitri, etc.) worked together, complimented each other and made a film a memorable experience on screen were long gone and Tollywood refused to change with the times. But Prasanth Varma has come in with a bang and has brought back the same memorable and enjoyable experience I have been seeking. I was totally engrossed in a movie that was not only thought provoking, but provided entertainment, shocks and thrills. Each of the stories filled me with amazement and I couldn’t look away. The last 10 minutes were jaw dropping and tragic. It took me a while to process what I just saw while driving from the theaters. I needed some fresh air to compose my thoughts in a clear effective manner.
Prasanth uses jump cuts to quickly transition from one storyline to the other, rapidly changing genres and themes to keep the audience on their toes seamlessly. He tries to make sure the audience gets it by his extensive visuals which begins with a brilliant animation and transitions into fantastic cinematography, wonderful production and art design and crisp editing. The BGM combines many genres, yet sound fresh and delightful. Kudos to Karthik Ghattamaneni, Gowtham Neresu, Mark K Robin and the art and production department.
This is the game changer Tollywood drastically needs. I agree it is not a perfect representation of mental illness, but it is better than the OTT portrayal in Anniyan. In Anniyan, we saw MPD outside in. In Awe, we see it inside out. We see the tragic story of Kali who is beyond help, who has created these multiple personalities to escape her depression and reality and yet they make it even worse for her. Drugs won’t help her disillusionment (Meera, Nala), her ego is always subdued by a higher power (Yogi), she tries to go back to change the past (Shiva) but ends up more angry and disappointed (Parvati), she is unable to express herself properly because of her past (Radha), the kind doctor in her can only do much (Krish) and she can’t get what she wants (Moksha). And so, the last resort is give up her body and donate it to charity, while her soul gets the peace it has been seeking. The Asathoma sargamaya… scene was great, but I think what would have been even better and more chilling if she said “Sarva dharmAn parithyaja mAm ekam saranam vraja…” from the Bhagavad Gita and then blown her brains out, meaning that her soul has completely surrendered unto Lord Krishna and has thus returned to Him. That would have been a much satisfying ending.
Actually, I felt Murali Sharma’s story to be one of the stronger ones. The egotistical magician thinking that he is the best and goes through all these hilarious escapades and being humbled at the end was enchanting. But if we see it as her going through all of this, it becomes sad instead of funny. Because of the conflict between ego and higher power in her mind, she ends up injuring herself physically and mentally. We may laugh at HIS escapades, but we will feel sorry for HER. This is why his story strongly resonated with me.
To his credit, Prasanth treated his audience like mature people and let them decide what Awe meant to them. If you pay attention in the beginning, the animation and theme song explained almost the entire movie. As to pjarugula’s concern that the stories didn’t succeed in fleshing out her character than they should have, I think she being the creator fleshed those multiple characters a lot more which then showed us who she was at the end. I feel the whole conceit was these characters didn’t flesh her out more because they were her. And she was them. And she couldn’t distinguish between herself and them.
This is a bold, beautiful and definitely the best Telugu film of the year. Kudos to Nani and Prasanth for providing such quality cinema. Glad they could get two huge stars (Kajal and Nithya) to lead an amazing ensemble. I can’t recommend it enough.
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