Aaptharakshaka: Nagavalli syndrome reloaded !

It’s 200th and unfortunately the last movie of late Kannada Superstar Vishuvardhan aka Sahasa Simha. The expectations were lot from the sequel since almost the same team had created a magic in the first edition Aapthamitra in 2004.

Like its predecessor the sequel is again based on “Nagavalli-syndrome”. I do not want to reveal the storyline, anyways following are some thoughts on the movie:

• Overall the movie was good there are sufficient amount of twists and suspense elements. But personally I could not digest the hyper natural climax. In Aapthamitra the climax was logical, believable and comprehensive but the same cannot said for the sequel, the director has just gone overboard.
• Many events in the movie goes unexplained. eg: appearance of King Cobra. After coming out of the theater audiences will be bemused whether they just saw a psychological or a super-natural thriller.
• Music of the movie is not that catchy as compared to Aapthamitra. The only good track is the “Ra Ra” song which is infact from Aapthamitra and has become synonymous with the character of Nagavalli.
• Good to see Nagavalli and Vijayrajendra Bahadur in their ‘real avatar’ on the screen in the hundred-year-ago flashback. Vimala Raman in Nagavalli’s role just dominates the screen.
• Looks like director missed the services of Soundarya very much. In the sequel, he had to use cheap special effects to show expressive eyes of the person affected by the syndrome.
• There seem to be some bad omen with this “Aaptha…” series. Before the release of first edition we lost Soundarya and now before the release of the sequel we lost Dr.Vishnu. I hope there’s no third edition.

Image source: oneindia.in