Ye Mantram Vesave

Ye Mantram Vesave Story: Nikky (Vijay Deverakonda) is an irresponsible and insensitive gaming addict. Rags (Shivani) enters his life and challenges him to find her by playing a game designed by her. But things seem to be much more than just fun and games.

Ye Mantram Vesave Review: Nikky (Vijay Deverakonda) is a typical gaming addict, always holed up in his room playing violent video games. He’s so far gone that even his parents have almost given up on him despite worrying for his well-being. When he enters a bet with his friends to make Rags (Shivani), a game designer, fall in love with him, he ends up getting entangled in something far bigger than what he expects.

Rags (Shivani) is the game designer with a ‘vision’ that looks beyond the usual blood and gore on computer screens and wants to find a solution for gaming addicts. While seeming like a sweet and an honest do-gooder on the surface, her character seems to veer more towards the sociopathic side. The same problem lies with Vijay Deverakonda’s character too. The film takes an awful lot of time setting up his character as a misogynist, but halfway through, gives up on the narrative when he somehow begins caring for a person he has never even met.

‘Ye Mantram Vesave’ showcases a pre-‘Arjun Reddy’ Devarakonda in all his rawness. While he did a fantastic job at being the suicidal friend in Nani’s ‘Yevade Subramanyam’ in 2015, in this film, he seems to try hard and yet not reach the mark. He screams, wails and emotes melodramatically to portray emotions, but if we’re to be honest, he’s still the only one making the film bearable.

Shivani as Rags never seems to get into the skin of her character; always remaining elusive and aloof. We’re told Rags is about a lot of things during the duration of the film, but she’s never actually seen being any of those. The director even tries to bank in on her slight resemblance to Katrina Kaif by shooting a song exclusively to show her beauty, but even that doesn’t seem to do anything much for either the story or her.

The film has an interesting human trafficking thread that it picks up on randomly and drops as abruptly too. Barring the ‘evil villain’ who oozes nothing but silliness, this is one of the interesting aspects of the film. Sadly, it’s never really utilised to its fullest extent. The ‘twist’ and the ‘final reveal’ seem so surreal and silly, actual laughter and sighs could be heard around the theatre. The film could’ve definitely done with a better cast and a focused storyline. The film also could’ve done without its preachy tone when warning people about the pitfalls of living in the age of Internet and how it’s time to look away from the screens and see the real world.

Give this one a miss this weekend unless you’re in for some outdated concepts, sexist jokes that fail at being humorous, weird camera angles and an awkward-as-a-teenager Vijay Deverakonda.