Awe (film)

The film expands with multiple independent stories and characters which are all later connected.

Story of Shiva (Srinivas Avasarala): he is a watchman at a restaurant who aspires to become a scientist. He is building a time machine to meet his parents whom he hasn't met for years, while Parvathy (Devadarshini), a woman, suddenly shows up and claims that she is his future self and has traveled back in time to prevent their parents' death, which Pavarthy claims will occur in an hour.

Story of Nala (Priyadarshi Pullikonda): he is a down-on-his-luck man who applies to be a chef at Pragathi's restaurant. While he does not even know how to cook restaurant dishes, he just follows instructions in YouTube cooking videos to finish jobs given by Pragathi. While he's cooking, he befriends a goldfish named Nani (Nani) and a bonsai tree named Chanti (Ravi Teja) in the kitchen, which both surprisingly can even talk and he is the only human that can hear, understand and communicate with them.

Story of Radha (Eesha Rebba): She is in a restaurant with her parents waiting for her "boyfriend" Krishnaveni (Nithya Menen, aka Krish) and will introduce "him" to them. However, when Krish shows up, it's seen that "he" is actually a girl -- she and Radha are lesbian lovers. Radha's parents strongly object Radha and Krish's relationship as they cannot accept a same-sex marriage. Krish tells Radha's parents that the latter hates men due to some bad incidents from childhood and her sex orientation later changed to women, which moves Radha's parents.

Story of Moksha (Kaitlyn D'mello): she is an 8-year-old girl who works at her mother's restaurant. She knows some magic tricks and often shows them to customers. Yogi (Murali Sharma), an egoistic magician, visits her restaurant. He humiliates Moksha after watching her magic show, but ends up being humiliated by someone claimed to be a magic master, or actually a ghost.

Story of Mira (Regina Cassandra): she is a waitress at a restaurant and a drug addict. She and her boyfriend Sugar are gearing up to loot a rich investor whom they expect to come to the restaurant soon. Mira accidentally finds a necklace inside a tree in the restaurant and wears it. She serves a regular customer Raghuram (Balakrishna), whose wife, according to an old staff in the restaurant, was buried alive years ago under the tree where Mira found the necklace. Mira begins to see the ghost of Raghuram's wife, which scares her a lot.

Kali (Kajal Agarwal), the core of the connection of all the previous stories, is suffering from some unknown psychological disorders. She's writing her death note and signing an Organ Donation Paper in a restaurant, and preparing to shoot herself there. Her death note writes: I am going to conduct a mass massacre, and I plead not guilty.

It is revealed now that the restaurants in all previous stories are actually the same restaurant, which is owned by Pragathi. Moksha is her daughter, Mira is her waitress, Nala is her chef, Shiva is her watchman, and Radha, her parents and Krish are her customers. All stories are happening at the same time.

Sugar conducts his plan to loot the investor but somehow fails, because his partner Mira is scared by the ghost. However, Sugar is not caught or seen doing anything, so he sits naturally and waits for another chance. Later, Moksha plays a magic trick for Sugar's target. Seeing this as a distraction, Sugar attempts at taking the money, but is caught by the investor. Frustrated, Sugar takes Moksha as a hostage to go away, only to bump into Yogi, who messes with him with magic tricks. Sugar accidentally shoots Radha and attempts to run away, but is knocked down by Nala (encouraged by Nani) with a nearby stick. Krish and Radha's parents try to take Radha to the hospital, but Shiva and Parvathy stops them with Sugar's gun, saying that if anyone of these people leaves, their parents will die.

It is implied by Parvathy, the future Shiva, that she had travelled back to this time for many times to save her parents, with the time machine Shiva will built in the future. But she fails every time because someone finally makes way out of the restaurant every time.

Finally, it is revealed that all these characters are multiple personalities of Kali. She was suffering from multiple personality disorder. Moksha's torture with Yogi and Sugar, Radha's sexual harassment from men, Mira's addiction to drugs, Nala trying to get a job as a cook, Shiva inventing a time machine to see his parents (which later becomes a woman as to Parvathy), and Krish as a psychiatrist are all her personalities and reflections of her life. The movie ends with Kali shooting herself because of the burden that she has been carrying in her mind, and all the virtual characters die at the same time, which reflects the Mass Murder she wrote in her last letter.

Nani met director Prashanth Varma who narrated the storyline to him. Nani reportedly loved the script and decided to produce the film himself. On 25 November 2017, the actor unveiled the title poster of the film at a star-studded event. The development has indeed brought cheers on the faces of Nani’s ardent fans. The film was bankrolled by the actor's debut production house, Wallposter Cinema and co-produced by Prashanti Tipirneni, who worked as a costume designer for the Baahubali film series.[5]

The film features an ensemble cast, which includes Kajal Aggarwal, Nithya Menen, Regina Cassandra, Eesha Rebba, Srinivas Avasarala, Murali Sharma, Priyadarshi Pullikonda, Rohini and Devadarshini. Ravi Teja was brought in to play one of the two voiceover narrators, featuring as the voice of a bonsai. Nani is voicing a fish, who is the other narrator.

While Karthik Ghattamaneni, Sahi Suresh and Gautham Nerusu were reported to be the cinematographer, art director and editor respectively. Newcomer Mark K Robin was roped in to compose the score and songs.

The film deals with mental health, abuse, gender and sexuality. Kali (played by Kajal Aggarwal), is the main protagonist who is suffering from multiple personality disorder, in the end of the film. MPD is a mental illness characterized by alternating between multiple personality states and memory loss.

The concept of lesbianism portrayed in the film, became a wide talk, since Telugu films were subjected to strict censor formalities, while portraying lesbianism in films. Affair is the first Telugu film to portray lesbianism. However, it did not have a theatrical release, since the CBFC refused to approve the film. It was directly released on YouTube.[6]The film was withdrawn and sent back to the Censor Board.[7] But, later it was released uncut.[8] The Supreme Court of India invalidated part of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code making homosexuality legal in India on September 2018.[9]

In an interview with Haricharan Pudipeddi of Hindustan Times, Nithya Menen stated that "When Prashant pitched the character, I was absolutely excited. As artistes, we come across many stories but something like Awe doesn’t come often; it’s rare. I didn’t see it as a lesbian character. I accepted the offer because I thought it’d be exciting and challenging. I love doing different, edgy roles."[10]

The film score and soundtrack is composed by newcomer Mark K Robin. Initially, the film features only one song titled "Theme of Awe" which was played in the opening and end credits of the film. The song was digitally released in YouTube and other streaming platforms on 9 February 2018, while it was launched at the Radio Mirchi FM Station in Hyderabad on 13 February 2018, in the presence of the film's cast and crew.[11] Sung by Sharon, with lyrics written by Krishna Kanth, The Times of India stated that "The song is tailor made for the movie."[12] Lahari Music released the opening credits and ending credits video on 30 June and 1 July respectively, which features the theme song. Both the videos were released on two different YouTube channels.[13]

The film's first look poster and title logo was unveiled on 25 November 2017.[5] The makers unveiled the character posters of the film's cast, the following month. Kajal Aggarwal's character poster was released on 3 December.[14] Nithya Menen's character poster was released on 7 December.[15] Regina Cassandra's character poster was released on 9 December.[16] Eesha Rebba's character poster was released on 12 December.[17] Srinivas Avasarala's character poster was released on 17 December.[18] Murali Sharma's character poster was released on 22 December.[19] Priyadarshi Pullikonda's character poster was released on 26 December.[20] Ravi Teja's character poster was released on 29 December and Nani's character poster was released on 30 December.[21][22]

A new poster featuring the entire cast was released on 1 January 2018, as a New Year's treat. The official teaser was released on 4 January 2018.[23] The team released another poster on 14 January 2018, coinciding with Sankranthi. The pre-release event took place at B. R. Ambedkar University Grounds at Hyderabad on 31 January 2018, where the film's trailer was released and received positive responses.[24] In order to promote the film, actor Nani and director Prashanth Varma came live on Facebook on 14 February 2018.[25]

The film received a U/A certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification and was released worldwide on 16 February 2018.[3][26] The film was premiered exclusively in the United States, a day before its original release, on 15 February 2018.[3]

Neetishta Nyayapati, from The Times of India, rated 4 out of 5 stars, and stated that "Go watch this film if you’re looking for something definitely out of the box and fresh, ‘Awe’ will not disappoint you."[27] The Indian Express gave it 4 stars stating that "Awe has high entertainment value, strong emotions, progressive characters, thrills, chills, comedy and some philosophy. Prasanth could have even made this film work without big actors or fancy sets in it."[28] Hindustan Times rated the film 5/5, summarising that the film is "technically brilliant".[29]

India Today rated 3 out of 5 stars, stating that "Awe has several astonishing moments only if you can look past the sequences that are not in sync with the story."[30] Behindwoods rated 3 out of 5, stating it as "a welcome trendsetter"[31] Deccan Chronicle rated 4 out of 5 stars, and summarised that "The narration is slow and be careful… If you do not understand the climax, you do not understand the film. The film’s key point is the last 15 minutes in which the director very cleverly reveals the connection between the characters. Prashanth Varma has tried something different here. People, who are on the lookout for a new genre cinema, should watch this film definitely."[32] Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote "Awe certainly leaves you thinking – about the film itself, and about what an exciting time it is in Telugu cinema, with so many rebels plotting these little coups against one of the country’s most deeply entrenched cinematic empires."[33]

In a contrast review, Firstpost rated 3 out of 5 and stated that "The moment you figure out an answer, you will know whether Awe! is ‘Awesome’ or ‘Awful’. The truth lies somewhere in between."[34] Indiaglitz rated 2.75/5, and gave a verdict: "AWE is a crafty anthology movie which relies too heavily on the strength of its climax. Too psychological, too poetic at times. The lengthiness of many scenes makes one say, 'It's more of the same'. Genre shifts were an oversold idea. The performances are praiseworthy. Technical departments put up a solid show."[35] Sify rated 2.5 out of 5 stars, stating that "Awe is psychological thriller of a traumatized woman told in episodic stories. There are many individual episodes that are strangely funny but the overall drama seems too far-fetched. The final twist in the tale is unconvincing. Second half is mostly bore."[36]

Celebrities such as actors Rahul Ravindran, Anupama Parameswaran, Adivi Sesh, Vennela Kishore, Shashank, director Madhura Sreedhar Reddy, producer Shobu Yarlagadda and costume designer Neeraja Kona, praised Nani and Prashanth Varma for the latter's scripting and direction and the former's production values.[37][38] The film was presented at the World Congress of Psychiatry in Mexico, by an Indian medical student from the US who presented at the conference as "Dissociative Identity Disorder in Indian Cinema."[39]

• Awe on IMDb