Criminal or Devil

Criminal or Devil debuted exclusively on Aha Telugu on October 25, 2024. With Asha Jeevitha making her stunning comeback with Adah Sharma in the unnerving character of Raksha, a lady who is psychologically instable and has dire motives, the film has a lot in store for the audience.

This Annam Krishna’s film is not a superficial masala film. It lives on fear, paranoia, and a will to survive. It indeed tests the limits of suspense and keeps the watchers at the edge of their seats.

Plot

The story’s main focus is towards Sidhu’s life a few days after he’d seen a horror movie and became scared of everything, which does not annihilate his belief that a ghost is playing tricks on him making it his habit.

Cast

Adah Sarma portrays Raksha as a confused, character and that in itself is more than just a single dimensional evil character. On the opposite pole however lies Sidhu who turns out to be an average individual but with one phobia, ghosts.

Viswant’s performance uplifted every aspect of the character. Surprisingly, Sidhu was very relatable and the audience instantly warmed up to him.

After watching a horror flick titled Devil, rather than returning home with happy endorphins, paranoia and suspicion accompany him, as he starts to feel something horrible stalking him all the time.

The supporting characters, Mahesh Vitta, Markos, and Rohini Noni, are indeed a contribution to the film. Each of them has a role in the story from their perspective which sometimes lightens the seriousness and sometimes makes it even worse.

Their acting uplifts the leading ladies, changes the way the story is told, and sorts the tension in the plot with several bursts of comic relief.

Trailer

Direction of Criminal or Devil

Krishna Annam, the director has put across a plot that is ghastly and attractive at the same time. Annam’s deft manipulation directs the viewer’s attention, creating a state of anxious anticipation about what is to come, and most importantly, doing this within a striking visual backdrop.

Light, shadows, and camera angles transform ordinary settings into ominous spaces magnifying the spectacle for the audience. Annam appends the horror and thriller elements in such a way that each one of his scenes increase in intensity but does not end up overwhelming the viewers.

In place of those cheap jump scares, he relies on psychological horror instead in order to maintain that tension in the viewers. This particular approach allows Criminal or Devil to be a unique entry in the genre as it features instead a stronger emphasis on setting and plot rather than the superficial aspects of horror.

Music

Just like any other crime genre, music is just as significant to Criminal or Devil, making the storytelling much more engaging. The background music only makes things more nerve-wracking, at times building up Raksha’s unsettling entrances and making Sidhu more terrified.

The sound design heightens at key moments of the film, further submerging the audience into Sidhu’s nightmares and Raksha’s surreal world.

Review

When watching Criminal or Devil there feelings of pride for the regions come into play when Aha Telugu is the selected platform. The movie is vindication of the evolving phase of the regional platforms who aim to create content that can also compete in the best film and thriller category.

Broadly Criminal or Devil succeeded in diversifying the perspectives in the traditional cinema of thrillers landscape. There are elements of fear that are omitted from peers and embodied here, where wonder is coupled with fright in the most casual manner.

The blend of these two elements combined with rich cast who aced character development and the plot was crafted beautifully making the movie a success in its own right.

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