M4M: Motive for murder - Telugu

M4M: Motive for Murder 

is a Telugu psycho thriller plus murder mystery movie. Among the cast, the only faces I recognized were Subhalekha Sudhakar and Satya Krishnan. That's actually part of the problem here. We'll get to that in the review. So, let's talk about my experience watching this film.

According to the story, an actor is murdered. The manner in which he is found dead immediately suggests that the work was done by a psychopath. That's it. From there, the police begin searching for the killer. They keep investigating and investigating. In the end, it becomes something like He's jumping, so he's Viswanathan. No, he's the one who jumped, so he's Viswanathan.  Then Hey, I'm jumping too! I'm Viswanathan! The film keeps pointing fingers at one suspect after another. Just when everyone is ready to put a finger on their nose in shock and say, Oh wow, so HE was the psychopath all along?, the police suddenly announce We've received new information. According to this new information, not him THIS person is the psychopath. At that point, the audience is left thinking, What on earth is going on? Wait... what was I trying to say? Ah yes, I remember now. The story! I started talking about the story, didn't I? Right.

The STORY is actually the one thing worth talking about in this film. And since I don't want to spoil it, let's move directly to how the movie felt overall. The filmmaking felt extremely amateurish. That's the biggest issue. Even if a story isn't great, people will still praise a movie if it's made well. They'll say, Wow, what amazing execution! But when the story is decent and the filmmaking fails, you get a movie like this. The first requirement of a psycho thriller is maintaining the mystery of Who is the psychopath? The movie does that pretty well. The next challenge is making the audience accept the reveal when the killer is finally exposed. That part works reasonably well too. In fact, the story itself had the potential to score even higher than that. That's precisely why I'm writing about the movie at all. Otherwise, I wouldn't even have bothered mentioning it. But the filmmaking is unquestionably a major letdown. And I'm not just saying that. Watch the film and you'll understand.

For example, in one scene, a man wearing a raincoat carries a tray containing two glasses of orange juice. In the very next shot, the tray suddenly contains only one glass of brown colored juice. How? Why? The movie is filled with continuity errors like this from beginning to end. Even that could be forgiven. But when people watch a psycho thriller, they expect a nail-biting, edge of the seat experience. This movie doesn't provide that at all.

Murder. Artistic crime scenes. Psycho killer. SP calling the Commissioner. Commissioner calling the SP. Then what? Breaking news on TV. Then breaking news on another channel. Then more breaking news. And more. 🤐 This is one of the movie's biggest flaws. Scenes that should have been conveyed through visuals, dialogue, silence, or atmosphere are constantly interrupted by television news reports about the murder. Showing the news once is fine. But nearly half the movie feels like watching breaking news broadcasts.

Then there's the hero and heroine. The hero is the police officer investigating the case. The heroine is an investigative journalist covering the same case. There's nothing inherently wrong with that setup, but for this particular story, it feels unnecessary. Had the film taken a different approach, it might have managed to create at least some suspense and tension. But unfortunately, that experience is missing. Both lead actors are newcomers. And throughout the movie, it's painfully obvious that they're acting. You can see the effort instead of believing the characters.

Honestly, if this story had been made with recognizable actors and directed by someone with stronger filmmaking skills, it could have turned out to be a classy thriller. Anyway, let's leave it there. We'll meet again in the next post. See ya!