Apurva Review: Predictable yet engaging survival drama
Apurva Movie Rating: 3 Stars
Just watched Apurva movie on Hotstar. Let’s focus on the complete details, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this movie.
Cast: Tara Sutaria, Abhishek Banerjee, Rajpal Yadav, Dhairya Karwa, Sumit Galati, Aaditya Gupta
Director: Shiva Nirvana
Release Date: 15th November 2023 on Hotstar
Story: Movie revolves around Apurva (Tara Sutaria) is travelling in a public bus in Madhya Pradesh to surprise her fiancé Siddharth (Dhairya Karwa) on his birthday. In the middle of the travel, local robbers Jugnu (Rajpal Yadav), Sukkha (Abhishek Banerjee), Balli (Sumit Gulati) and Chotta (Aditya Gupta) have an altercation with the bus driver.
In a fit of rage, Jugnu murders the bus driver and conductor. Following this, the four abduct Apurva and take her in their car with the aim of raping her and then finishing her off. How Apurva escapes from their clutches forms the crux of the story.
Positives
1. Performances
2. Direction
3. Length
4. Screenplay
Negatives
1. Climax
2. Music
3. Story
Durgesh Tiwary’s View: When I watched the trailer of this film planned to watch this movie in my free time as trailer looked engaging and it encourages women empowerment.
It is the story of an ordinary woman Apurva who faces extraordinary circumstances after getting kidnapped on the highway and will do anything to survive. Will she be able to save herself?
Apurva has predictable yet a riveting story which keeps the audience hooked right from beginning. Screenplay is so well-written that it doesn’t give you even a second to think thanks to its short length. The basic idea is pretty good, and in one way, it can be said that the movie is inspirational for women to fight dangerous battles with bravery. While the events give a frightful glimpse of how abhorrent the criminals are, in a few instances, one feels the violence could have been dialled down a notch while still being impactful. The genre also demands the actors to be on the top of their game, to pull off a gamut of emotions and reactions convincingly. Director Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt wastes no time to set up his story and get the proceedings rolling. In the first 10-minute narrative, we are introduced to the negative forces of Apurva and how dreadful they are, followed by the narrative of how a small incident can have a big impact on the life of a simplistic girl. Tara Sutaria gives the performance of her life. She tries to break the cutesy girl-next-door image that she has built over the years. Abhishek Banerjee and Rajpal Yadav also impresses among others.
On the flipside, the main drawback of A is that the film is predictable right from the beginning, which shouldn’t be the case for a survival thriller. We can guess the scenes from miles away, and this takes out the excitement. The tension is not maintained throughout, and the characters apart from Tara Sutaria are underdeveloped. We are shown very little about the antagonists, and it would have been better if the other characters were shown in a detailed manner. The VFX works during the climax scene are shoddy. The protagonist’s backstory doesn’t have the desired impact, as Dhairya Karwa’s role isn’t written well. The climax of Apurva could have been a little better, especially with regard to the death of Sukkha’s character.
Overall, movie is a well-intentioned survival thriller which will be liked for its crispness and its tension. Had there been more tense moments and had the writing been sharp, the film could have gone to the next level. It’s theme and short runtime make it a one-time watch. My view on this movie Time Pass.
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