Panchathantram Movie Review: It’s been two years since the movie was announced, and it was ready to release. However, the makers decided to hold the movie back until the right time to release it. The movie finally came out today, December 9, 2022. The teaser and trailer attracted attention and raised expectations, and comedy legend Brahmanandam made a cameo. Now let’s dive into the review to see if the movie is worth seeing.
Story
Panchathantram tells five distinct stories, each with its own conflict. Each story focuses on a particular human sense, such as smell, taste, hearing, touch, or taste. The remaining four stories explore how the senses relate to one another and whether the characters will succeed in achieving their goals in terms of their life forms.
Cast & Crew
The film was directed by Harsha Pulipaka and stars Brahmanandam, Swathi Reddy, Naresh Agastya, Rahul Vijay, Shivathmika Rajasekhar, Divya Drishti, Samuthirakani, and others. Raj K Nalli handled the cinematography, Shravan Bharadwaj handled the music, and Srujan Yarabolu produced it under the TicketFactory
| Movie Name | Panchathantram |
| Director | Harsha Pulipaka |
| Music Director | Shravan Bharadwaj & Prashanth R Vihari |
| Producer | Akhilesh Vardhan & Srujan Yarabolu |
| Genre | Drama |
| Cast | Brahmananda, Swathi Reddy, Naresh Agastya, Rahul Vijay, Shivathmika Rajasekhar, Divya Drishti, Samuthirakani |
| Cinematography | Raj K Nalli |
Movie Verdict
The film is an interesting amalgamation of human emotions, and it starts off interestingly with Vyas played by Brahmanandam narrating the five stories. It then dives into the stories where you can experience the beautiful conversations in the episode of Lekha (Shivani Rajasekar) and Subhash (Rahul Vijay), slowly you will find out more about the characters as the story progresses.
The film’s biggest flaw is its painfully slow narration, despite the fact that the interesting characters and lovely narration draw us in. However, the second half of the movie, when you can see the depth of the five stories—their difficulties, joys, and mental states—makes you emotionally invested in the plot and connects you to it until the climax. If you can endure the film’s slow narration until the very end, you will undoubtedly leave with a positive feeling.
Speaking of the performances, the movie has a fantastic cast, but comedy legend Brahmanandam is the main draw. He played the character of Vyas, and the way he narrated the stories with his comedic timing was a pleasure to watch it on screen. Swathi has also done well considering that she has little screen time. Samuthirakani once more impressed with his fine performance as his sense of smell works so strongly in those scenes.
The director Harsha Pulipaka deserves praise for bringing this lovely story to our attention. While there are some writing flaws, such as the fact that many characters don’t have happy endings, and the narration could have used a bit more racy language, he handled each of the five stories masterfully. He also succeeded in capturing the audience’s attention throughout the entire film by using the five senses to tell the stories.
Technically, the movie is passable; the visuals in a few episodes are strong, Raj K. Nalli’s cinematography is passable in some scenes, Shravan Bharadwaj & Prashanth R Vihari did an excellent job, and the rest of the team did well.
Overall, Panchathantram is a stunning synthesis of fundamental human emotions that may be enjoyed by all audiences.
Plus Points:
- Stories
- Music
- Screenplay
- Few Performances
Minus Points:
- Slow Narration