OTT Review : Anger Tales – Telugu series on Hotstar

OTT platform Disney Plus Hotstar has come up with an anthology series titled Anger Tales that features a notable cast. Directed by Prabhala Tilak, the show is currently available for streaming. Let’s see how it is.

Story :

Anger Tales is all about four characters who experience extreme anger due to the respective situations in their lives. The first story is about Ranga (Venkatesh Maha), a desperate fan of a star hero who is hell-bent on screening his favorite hero’s benefit show at 7 PM in a single screen. The second story is about a married woman Pooja Reddy (Madonna Sebastian), who is restricted by her vegan husband and mother-in-law from having food of her choice. The third story is about a housewife named Radha (Bindhu Madhavi), whose sleep gets disturbed by the constant loud chatter of her owner and the owner’s relatives. The final story is about a 32-year-old man Giridhar (Phani Acharya), who faces hardships both in his personal and professional life due to his bald head.

Plus Points : 

The story featuring the recent sensation Venkatesh Maha has its soul in the right place. Every movie fanatic can relate to the character of Ranga played by Venkatesh Maha. It is known to all that fans go to any extent not to let their hero down, and the same has been shown convincingly. There is emotion, there is fun, and there is anger in this particular story. All these elements worked very nicely, and Venkatesh Maha and Suhas gave their best. Of late many incidents of damage to theatres while screening re-release movies were reported, and this aspect was also touched upon in this final story.

The story featuring Madonna and Tharun Bhascker has a simple and good message about one’s freedom regarding food choices. The same has been dealt in a decent manner. Madonna and Tharun Bhascker did well in their respective roles, and the story is kept short.

Performance-wise, Bindhu Madhavi, Phani Acharya, and Ravindra Vijay scored good marks in the other two stories. The background score was good and gave a nice feel to the proceedings. The idea of making an anthology series on the basic human emotion, anger is fine.

Minus Points :

The biggest drawback is the way things were concluded in the stories that featured Bindhu Madhavi and Phani Acharya. The stories aren’t that bad here, but it is the execution that actually hampered the whole impact. The story featuring Phani Acharya starts off well, and the characterization is nicely introduced. Though it is a bit similar to Bala (Hindi) movie, things begin on a decent note, but later the graph dips and the narrative moves in an inconsistent manner. This plot also ends in a silly manner. What exactly the makers wanted to convey through this story is unclear.

The next issue is with the narration in the story featuring Bindhu Madhavi. The point taken is okay, and it is understandable that one gets irritated heavily due to the nonstop loud chatter of others. But the story is dragged for no reason, and we are shown repetitive scenes throughout. This part hence is boring, and an even more disappointing thing is the climax of this tale which is ridiculous.

Had the above two stories been concluded in a neat manner, the series could have been a lot better. The show moves at a very slow pace for the most part, and the editing team could have chopped off many redundant scenes to eliminate the boredom.

Technical Aspects :

The music by Smaran Sai is good, and as mentioned earlier, it enhanced the impact of a few sequences. The cinematography is fine. The production values are fair. The dialogues in the first episode are neatly written, and the fun angle showcased here looks natural. The editing is below-par.

Coming to director Prabhala Tilak, he did just an okay job with the series. The narrative and emotions worked pretty well only in the first plot and to an extent in the second story. But the director’s work in the other stories is not so great, and these stories needed much caution regarding the presentation. The main point isn’t established properly in the last tale featuring Phani Acharya, whereas the narrative took the beating completely in the third episode.

Verdict :

On the whole, Anger Tales is an anthology show that works in parts. The show largely benefits from the performances of the lead cast and its first episode featuring Venkatesh Maha and Suhas. But the problem is the underwhelming presentation of other stories. Hence Anger Tales ends up being a strictly okay watch this weekend. Watch it with low expectations.

123telugu.com Rating: 2.5/5

Reviewed by 123telugu Team

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