Release Date : November 04, 2022
123telugu.com Rating : 2.5/5
Starring: Zaid Khan, Sonal Monteiro, Sujay Shastry, Devaraj, Achyuth Kumar, Sapna Raj, and others
Director: Jayatheertha
Producers: Tilakraj Ballal, Muzammil Ahmed Khan
Music Director : B. Ajaneesh Loknath
Cinematography : Advaitha Gurumurthy
Editor : K. M. Prakash
Related Links : Trailer
Zaid Khan is getting introduced with the PAN India film Banaras. The movie got a decent buzz with its trailer and songs. It has hit the screens today. Let’s see how it is.
Story:
Siddarth (Zaid Khan) challenges his college friends that he will make Dhani (Sonal Monteiro) fall for him and approaches Dhani in an interesting manner. Dhani believes in Siddarth and lands in a massive problem due to him. Realizing his mistake, Siddarth travels to Banaras, where Dhani stays, to apologize to her. Did Siddarth apologize to Dhani? Did Dhani forgive him? What are the situations Siddarth encounter in this regard? This forms part of the rest of the story.
Plus Points:
Zaid Khan, who made his acting debut with Banaras, performed with ease. We won’t get the feeling that he was doing his first film and emoted quite beautifully in crucial scenes. He carried the movie entirely on his shoulders from start to end. He also looks good and stylish and can make it big in the coming days.
Sonal Monteiro looked gorgeous and performed well in her role. The film starts off quite well in an exciting manner. The first ten minutes of the film raise curiosity as to what would unfold in the following sequences. The interval twist is decent.
Others like Sujay Shastry, Achyuth Kumar, and Devaraj were decent in their respective roles. There are a few interesting moments here and there in the movie that catches our attention. Few dialogues and fun portions at places are good.
Minus Points:
The actual problem is that the main plot isn’t established properly. The director took his own sweet time to come to the main plot and didn’t concentrate on the screenplay in the first half. As a result, the love track feels dragged, and it is only during the interval the actual story starts.
The exciting moments in the second half make us eagerly wait for the main twist, and we will be disappointed heavily when it comes. Unfortunately, the point taken and the screenplay didn’t go hand in hand. The director tried to add too many genres and concepts in the movie, and thus the film feels left somewhere in between all these. The songs come as speed breakers.
The way in which the movie is heading can’t be understood due to the below-par execution, and the emotions could have been conveyed in a better manner. There is some philosophical touch given over the end, but how things are executed doesn’t engage the audience completely.
Technical Aspects:
The background music by Ajaneesh Loknath is decent. The cinematography by Advaitha Gurumurthy is fantastic, and he captured the majestic locations of Banaras quite beautifully. The production values are good, and so is the Telugu dubbing.
The direction by Jayathirtha is below-par, and he should have concentrated more on the screenplay. His idea to present a different film is fine, but the problem arises since he attaches too many elements. He should have confined it to fewer aspects to make the movie more interesting. Also, more effort should have been put into the writing. However, Jayathirtha was triumphant in extracting good performances from artists.
Verdict:
On the whole, Banaras is a so-so love story that has a few engaging moments. Zaid Khan’s performance and a few good scenes are let down by issues in writing and screenplay, thus making the film just an okayish watch this weekend.
123telugu.com Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed by 123telugu Team