Charminar

Story: Fashion designer Sethu gets acquainted to Anand when they start working together on a project. Sethu introduces him to his love interest Nanda and the trio soon become friends, only to eventually change the equation between themselves.

Review: Tales of love triangles, set in the world of fashion and advertisement industry, is a tried and tested formula that raked in a lot of moolah at the box office across film industries in the 90s. Director Ajith C Logesh’s Charminar has a similar premise.

Sethu (Ashwin Kumar), a fashion designer, gets acquainted to Anand (Hemant Menon), an ad film maker and the duo work together on a project. During the course of their friendship, Sethu introduces his girlfriend Nanda (Harshika Poonacha) to Anand. Little do they know that their equations with each other are all set to change.

The two lead actors are also its rare positives. Ashwin Kumar effortlessly impressed the audience through his debut Malayalam film Jacobinte Swargrajyam. While he played the antagonist in that film, he gets to be the hero in Charminar. And yet again, he proves his mettle as a lover and a man seeking revenge in Charminar. He also shows that he can also shake a leg with this movie. His co-star Hemanth Menon also puts up a decent performance.

On the flip side, it becomes evident that the team had intended to string together a serious film but fails to live up to the task. Though the runtime is just 2 hours, it feels stretched at several instances. The almost 15 minute-long scene of the protagonist verbally and physically abusing his love interest in a hotel room, and then take breaks to pour water on himself in a bid to cool himself down and also smoke in between, could have easily been edited to benefit both the film and the viewers.

Producer Sirajudheen’s cameo is a similarly wasted effort in the movie. New girl Harshika is extremely good looking but her performance leaves much to be desired. The music, by Jecin George, is strictly average and the treatment of the simple story mediocre at best.