Title: ATM (All Together Mighty)
Cast: VJ Sunny, Subbaraju, Krishna Burugula, Ravi Raj, Roiel Shree
Director: Chandra Mohan
Story
It’s a story of four street boys Jagan (Vj Sunny), Karthik (Krishna Burugula), Abhay (Ravi Raj) and Harsha (Roiel Shree). Bruised by their struggling childhood, all four get habituated to easy money and start committing petty thefts in the locality of Chaderghat, the suburb on the banks of the Musi. All of them have different trajectories and dreams. Above all, all have responsibilities to fulfil at home.
Jagan’s dream to pursue schooling remains unfulfilled. His father’s meagre earnings as a lorry driver are insufficient. This fuels the fire in Jagan to make it big in life while Karthik has a sister who came for marriage. Abhay fails as a chef in a restaurant. His girlfriend Ramya (Divi Vadthya) keeps pushing Abhay to focus on getting a remunerative job to meet both ends. Yet, all four, find no way. The gang inadvertently run into trouble one day when they pick an antique model Fiat Premier and sell them to a local trader. What’s hidden inside the car would perhaps change their fate? But what’s in store for them? And how they plan a heist to wriggle themselves out of circumstances is a story in short.
Review
‘ATM’ is hyped as a heist drama starring small-time actors in the industry. Although the trailer gives a sneak peek into the story that is set in the bylanes of Hyderabad with characters mouthing Deccani Telangana dialect, the making part gets clearly exposed when the story lags behind enough detailing and characterisation. The conversational and cliched dialogues might test your patience as you move forward into further episodes.
Actor Roiel Shree’s role as Harsha looks funny throughout. Fond of ‘Mysore Bonda’, he would slip into a trance while savouring ‘Bonda’ with ‘Allam Chutney’. VJ Sunny had waited for a long time post his success as a Telugu reality show Bigg Boss winner.
Subbaraju’s character as a police officer Hegde is written and executed well. However, Divya Vani’s character as Circle Inspector Umadevi is a complete misfit in the series. This grumpy-old inspector has a few weeks left for retirement and constantly troubles her subordinates with her ill-tempered behaviour — which is very unlikely in reality. Actor Prithvi Raj has performed fairly well as a local politician Gajendra. Thirty years into mainstream politics, Gajendra now aspires to become MLA by harping on the vote bank of slum dwellers in his locality.
Drawbacks
The mimics of commercial mainstream cinema are clearly evident in ‘ATM’. Take the case of VJ Sunny’s introduction sequence of an eagle perching on his hands and nibbling on the food he offers. The elevation scene looks as though he is set to rule the world. But, on the contrary, he actually falls into a ditch. Although the story starts off with a good premise, it becomes sloppy as it progresses into the plot. It could have been more appropriately weaved by incorporating more twists in the tale. But director Chandrasekhar has made a good attempt to showcase the heist story and it didn’t materialise well in engaging audiences.
Highlights
Performances from the characters including the lead actors
crisp editing
Back-ground score
