Ye Mantram Vesave is a low-budget movie. It takes a while to get used to the gaudy costumes, actors who cannot emote, poor production design and bad locations. Probably inspired by the Hindi movie called Bluffmaster, where an irresponsible man gets a taste of his own medicine when he gets played by the girl he trusts, the movie tries to be innovative but pans out as one big video game.
The broader plot revolves around a creepy online predator, ‘Sweet Guy’, who traps girls online, meets them, kidnaps them and auctions them to bidders around the world. There is a girl, Rags (Shivani) that this online predator is after, the same girl Vikky (Vijay Devarakonda), a habitual flirt, is chasing.
While Rags eludes Vikky, he realises that she is in danger. What begins as a chauvinistic challenge for him turns into a meaningful pursuit. Meanwhile, she seems to have been kidnapped by a colleague of hers, a hacker and game designer. Vikky, who is slowly transformed into a sensitive, mature guy, is out on a mission to nab ‘Sweet Guy’. He succeeds in exposing the girl-trafficking ring and continues in pursuit of Rags’ kidnapper. The eventual revelation blows his mind.
The movie desperately makes a case against social media, almost hammering the message that everyone out there is a charlatan and one should not give in to online temptations and lose touch with real life. The implementation is patchy and the movie feels like a bunch of badly-shot short movies put together. The dumbness of the characters is appalling, to say the least. The antagonists use anaesthetics on everyone so often, the movie feels like an ad for their usage.
The movie’s ending is a saving grace but a crime thriller needs better editing and build-up for the audiences to feel part of the story. The plot twist in the end makes you question a lot of other events shown during the movie, which contradict the ending and seem to have been put in purely to confuse the audience.
What about the audiences who walk out 20 mins before the close given how lame and unimaginative the movie felt?! Is it even legal to play reality-show-style games with real people, in the process of which they are deliberately hurt and injured several times? If not, is the lead character justified in her schadenfreude?
Vijay of Arjun Reddy fame probably brought the crowds to the hall, but movies with twists in the end need to give audiences a lot more to stay hooked until the so-called ‘plot twist’ arrives. Otherwise, it feels like a futile and boring task to stay awake.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film's producers or any other members of its cast and crew.