180 Moview Review - 3/5

Movie: 180
Starring: Siddharth Narayan ,Priya Anand,Nithya Menon
Director: Jayendra Sarma
Producer: Satyam Cinemas
Music: Sharreth
Rating:3/5

Story:
Mano (Siddharth) performs the last rites of his family on the banks of the Gangas in Varanasi. He comes across a small boy who is also performing his father's last rites by playing happily with his toy car. He realizes the philosophy of life and decides not to worry about death but enjoying every day to the fullest.

Mano reaches Chennai and leads a happy life. Vidya (Nithya Menon) is a press reporter gets attracted to Mano and she slowly starts loving him. One fine day Vidya proposes him but Mano negates her due to his dark past. In the meantime, Vidya meets with an accident which forces Mano to take her to US for further treatment. Here comes the flashback of Mano where he is introduced as Ajay (Siddharth), a doctor in San Francisco, America who meets Renuka aka Renu (Priya Anand). In no time both fall for each other and enters wedded life. What is Mano’s dark past? What made Ajay to move away from his loving wife Renu? How is 180 related to the story, is to be watched on the big screen.

Performances:
Siddharth has delivered an outstanding performance. He yet again proved that he is a versatile actor and a heartthrob for urban youth and class audiences. He gave a convincing performance as Mano and Ajay and has excelled in romantic scenes.

Priya Anand looked beautiful and performed picture perfectly. She had more screen space and has done exceedingly well compared to her earlier films.

Nithya Menon has yet again come up in a good role after Ala Modalaindi. She did a good job as a journo and admirer of Siddhath.

Sri Charan as Siddharth’s friend is apt, Mouli deserves applauses, Geetha, Tanikella Bharani and others are adequate.

Technicalities:
Cinematography by Balasubramaniam is a big asset for the film which brings out a realistic feel with some innovative angles. Shot with RED digital camera, it gives us a natural feel, right from the titles, every frame looked stunning and picture perfect. Music by Shareth is blissful and goes well with the story. ‘AJ’ and ‘Nee Maatalo’ are quiet good on screen with Siddharth and Priya’s cool romantic visuals. Background music is fine. Dialogues penned by Subha are good in parts.

The ad film maker turned director Jayendra leaves a mark with his rich visuals right from the word Go. While the storyline moves with expected twists and twirls and strikes you Prabhas Chakram and Nag’s Geethanjali. Jayendra tried to make his mark with the narration moves. The screenplay should have been innovative as the progression of the story is predictable. Editing could have been better in the second half by trimming off some of the dragging scenes.

Analysis:

180 is rich, urbane and stylish movie. The first half of the film keeps you engaged with some interesting moments while the second half is dragging. The emotional sequences have come out well. The plus points of the film are casting (Siddharth, Priya and Nithya Menon), Siddharth's performance, cinematography and music. The negative points are predictable story and dragging second half. On a whole, 180 is partly good and partly predictable with rich visuals. 180 would have met the expectations if the second half of the film is racy.

Final Verdict: 100 for Technical brilliance+ 50 for lead cast performance+30 for story & Narration= 180 Movie