Matka Movie Review

Matka is Varun Tej’s new film promoted a lot in the last few days. Featuring Varun Tej and Meenakshi Chaudhary in lead roles, the film has been directed by Karun Kumar of Palasa fame. Read our review to find out whether the film lives up to all the hype.

Story

Vasu(Varun Tej) is a refugee from Burma who landed in Vizag as a teenager. He takes the route of crime and becomes a solid criminal. One fine day, he heads to Mumbai and chances upon the game of Matka and brings it to Vizag. Very soon, he becomes the Matka King only to draw the attention of the Indian government who appoint a special cop(Naveen Chandra) to nab him. Did Vasu save his empire and get away from the crime is the basic story of the film.

What about on-screen performances?

Varun Tej is very good in his role and he is the saving grace of Matka. He gets to play a goon, a don, and a gangster solidly. Varun has given one of the best performances of his career. Aja Ghosh is neat in his role.

Naveen Chandra did not have much to do in the film. Nora Fatehi gets a decent role but is not utilized properly in the narrative. John Vijay is weak as the main villain in the film. He hardly creates any impact in Matka.

Saloni gets a supporting role and does not get even a single dialogue. Meenakshi Chaudhary is there in yet another small role. She appears as the wife of Varun Tej and has only two or three scenes in the film.

The rest of the cast was just about okay.

What about off-screen performances?

Karuna Kumar has directed Matka and his story is routine and does not showcase anything new. His narration is outdated and does not have many thrills that engage. The production values of the film are top-notch. How the bygone era is showcased is superb in the narrative.

The art department needs a pat on the back. GV Prakash is one of the biggest culprits. His songs are bad and even worse was his BGM. He did not give anything worthy in the narrative that elevates the film.

The editing is a big mess as the film is lengthy and boring. The director Karuna Kumar takes forever to enter the main story. So many scenes in the first half could have been edited. There is no main villain in the film and this is the biggest drawback. No one could stop the rise of Varun Tej. This aspect looks bad and does not elevate the conflict point.

When compared to the first half, the second is a tad better. A lengthy scene where Varun mouths a single take scene is amazing but by then it is too late in the film. The emotions hardly connect in the film and this is where Matka goes for a toss.

The crime syndicate is not established properly as the edge of the seat moments are missing. Matka had the story for the drama to be elevated but director Karuna Kumar has made a mess of it.

The ending is also not that great and Varun is the only solace.

What’s Hot.?

Varun Tej’s performance
A few thrills
Production design

What’s Not.?

Routine Story
Lack of strong emotions
Slow pace
Lack of thrills

Verdict:

Overall, Matka is a wasted opportunity by Karuna Kumar. He narrates the film with fewer thrills and the needed emotion is missing in the film. Only Varun Tej is good but he alone cannot salvage the film at the box office this weekend.

OTT Or Theatrical: What Next For Samantha?

Samantha is one of the biggest names in Telugu cinema and the actress has been actively making films a couple of years back. But in view of the medical condition that she had been suffering from, she had slowed down a bit.

Due to the gap in filming, Samantha is now mostly confined to OTT shows. Her latest outing Citadel: Honey Bunny is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Luckily for Samantha, despite the ordinary reviews for the Amazon show, it could catch the attention of the OTT audience worldwide and gain a fair bit of traction.

Apparently, it has clocked viewership readings in nearly 200 countries which is a big deal.

However, the issue here is that the OTT boom for Samantha will keep her closer only to OTT stuff henceforth and gradually take her away from theatrical films.

In accordance, Samantha doesn’t have any theatrical projects at hand. The chances are that Amazon might approach her with another OTT project in the due course.

Does this essentially mean that the OTT boom for Samantha results in a subsided theatrical interest? Only time will answer this question, it must be said.