Psycho - A review

Watching a movie on Friday evenings is the best way to kick start a week end. It just about puts a perfect end to the week and a makes the week end a more convincing one to spend. It’s like, in cricket, hitting a six of the first ball faced. This week it was Devadatta’s Psycho, a movie I had been waiting to watch for a loooong time.



The songs of Psycho I heard / have been listening to for over a year now. Raghu Dixit, who, I have been following since spotting him first singing a song about a girl from Mysore in Alliance Francis and at the Fire Flies Music festival of 2007 and I have become a fan of, has rendered the background score and the music for the movie. This is his debut in films. So I was already a fan of the movie which already made it one of the most awaited movies EVER. Having said that, I also hoped and prayed that the movie is not SO bad as to letting down the songs. Prayers seems to have been answered.



Devadatta had not revealed either the cast of the movie, the shooting of which started in the May of 2007. All that was revealed till the movie finally released for the “Rajyaotsava” of 2008 were the songs and a couple of trailers of UTube. The release itself was different, in the sense that I got to know about the release on the Friday, about 8 hours before I was in the theater watching the First Show!



The story is about Pavana (played by Anitha a newcomer), who is trying to fix her career as a TV anchor. Psycho (played by another newcomer, Dhanush), as the name suggests is a psychotic lover. He is obsessed with Anitha and stalks her and such. Most of the scenes are very naturally played and the excellent camera work, both in the songs as well as the movie makes simple scenes look very intense. Dhanush has done an excellent work playing a loner in love with Pavana. I personally liked the scene in which he picks up the flowers that fall off Pavana's locks and how he shivers when he picks it up. The setting of the movie is also excellent. The house of pyscho has been meticulously planned with lots of importance given to details. The background score needs more than a mention to the success of the movie. The best part is that the songs have been shot very well, not letting down Raghu's music.



Although Devadatta claims this is an original story, I feel that the characterization of Psycho is subtly based on Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s original with the same name. Similarity, in the lines of his split personality, and the reason for this disorder in him. But the nice part is that, that’s where the similarity ends. Just one scene, almost at the end of the movie where "Psycho" wears a sari and calls his lover out maps very well to the original.



I felt that the screen play and the dialogues could have been worked on a little bit more. Some of the dialogues are very very flat, sometimes bringing about unintended humor which spoilt the seriousness of the film. I also felt sometimes that some scenes are very long, hence felt the urge to either check my cell phone or pass a comment. But, overall, the subject matter has been dealt with amazingly well, that too for a Kannada film.



All in all, easily a 4 and a half out of 5 for Devadatta's Psycho with special mentions to Raghu Dixit for the music and Sandeep Kumar, the man behind the camera. This movie is definitely hitting my DVD collection. Now that I think about it, there aint much of a collection I have. So Psycho probably marks the beginning of my DVD collection. Pirated or otherwise!. But its a definite watch in theater. More than once for the music at least. If you need company, book a ticket for me and I’ll be there