'Vedha' movie review: Shivarajkumar wages a lone battle, again

Vedha

Kannada (Theatres)

Director: A Harsha

Cast: Shivarajkumar, Ganavi Laxman, Umashri, Aditi Sagar

Rating: 2/5

Hat-trick her Shivarajkumar’s 125th film Vedha has a solid plot. Director A Harsha has chosen sexual assaults against minors, as the theme for the flick. It is a story of a girl who is a victim of gang rape. She is falsely imprisoned for a murder. She later combines with her father to take revenge against her perpetrators.

The revenge drama is set in the 1960s and concludes around 1985. The central characters believe that those committing sexual atrocities against women must be killed.

Harsha drastically fails in execution, letting a decent opportunity go out of his hands. He heavily depends on a non-linear narrative and uses too many flashbacks to make the plot convoluted. The audience will have to really struggle to make sense of the movie. Some fast-paced dialogues aren’t clear either.

Arjun Janya’s background score and music composition is tortuous. Janya’s work in no way complements the film’s theme. At times, his music seems inspired from KGF: Chapter 2. All four songs affect the pace of the narration.

Only the director knows why he set the film in the 1960s and named it as Vedha. There are no justifications for his creative decisions in the film.

As always, Shivarajkumar comes out with an energetic performance and single-handedly carries the film on his shoulders. Ganavi Laxman, Umashri, Shwetha Chengappa, Veena Ponappa and Aditi Sagar impress with their performances.

The cinematography from Swami J Gowda is a plus but shots remind us of the KGF franchise.

Shivarajkumar’s 100th film Jogayya fell flat after carrying massive hype. His 125th film is all set to meet a similar fate. However, the seasoned actor can’t be blamed for the director’s blunders.