Review in Pictures: Keratam

Cooking a complex dish isn't, well, easy. Especially, when the chefs involved are amateurs--the result can swing either way; it may be either impressive or useless.

With Keratam, a gang of such amateurs try to make an interesting film, but fail miserably in their attempt.

The story revolves around Siddhu and his childhood friends. When we are introduced to them, all of them study in the same class. Even when they graduate from school, they remain only good friends, with no romantic inclinations.

It's only when they shed their uniforms that they realize they've grown up; almost instantly, Siddhu develops an intimacy with Geetha, coming to the conclusion that he's fallen for her.

It's when things start getting heavy that the villain makes his entrance; Robo, a former classmate of the two, teases Geetha one day. In a fit of rage, Siddhu challenges Robo and defeats him in a bike race. This only serves to strengthen the bond between Siddhu and Geetha, much to Robo's displeasure.

To take revenge for his humiliating defeat, Robo tries to molest one of Siddhu's friends in the college lab. The girl's friends attack him viciously, thrashing him. Accidentally, Robo pulls a live cable and suffers an electric shock.

Obviously, the police intervene, but the principal manages to a case, since the kids' careers would end up being at stake. However, during the enquiry, the friends confess that Siddhu had rivalry with Robo because he is in love with Geetha.

The police warn him not to indulge in fights and concentrate on his career. All the parents of the remaining friends in the batch warn their children to avoid Siddhu until he forgets his love and concentrates on his studies.

But Siddhu refuses to listen; Geetha, though, bows to her father and vacates the house.

Geetha's departure makes Siddhu cry inconsolably.....but only till he comes across another pretty girl, Sangeeta. Obviously, he uses all the tricks in the book to win her love.

Following a patch of delinquent behaviour on Siddhu's part, his father throws him out of the house.

When Siddhu, lost and confused, goes over to Sangeeta's father and tells her that he's in love with her, Sangeeta refuses to acknowledge his love, since he obviously has no goals or agenda in life. She tells him she doesn't want to marry him.

All of this makes Siddhu realise the value of hard work in life.

The film ends with a simple message: no one should jeopardize their career prioritising love over their own goals, specially if that love turns out to be nothing but an infatuation.

Plus:

Unfortunately, there are hardly any plus points in the film. But for the message in the end, the film has nothing good to offer.

Even the comedic element, by way of actor Venumadhav, seems forced and contrived.

Minus:

None of the artistes deliver even a decent performance. The director fails to extract emotions from his amateur cast while the characterisation is plain confused.

In fact, the entire film is confusing as the audience gropes in dark to understand what the director wants to explain.

The cinematography, by A Venkatesh, is patchy, at best, with the inconsistency in lighting being a major turnoff. The editing, by Suresh Urs, is also not up to the mark as some scenes get cut too abruptly.

Joshua Sridhar's music is poor and adds nothing to the film. Director Gautham Patnaik has failed to pen a good script, screenplay and dialogues.

Final Analysis:

While the story is good, Keratam makes too many mistakes to be viewed in good light.

Ultimately, it's a film that can be avoided completely .