Evaru


Evaru is an Indian Telugu-language crime thriller film directed by Venkat Ramji which is a remake of Spanish movie "The Invisible Guest". The film produced by Pearl V. Potluri, Param V. Potluri and Kavin Anne. The film starring Adivi Sesh, Regina Cassandra, and Naveen Chandra follows the story of corrupt cop Vikram Vasudev. The music is composed by Sricharan Pakala and editing by Garry BH. The film is released on 15 August 2019. The film is an official Telugu-language adaptation of the Spanish film The Invisible Guest.

Plot

The film opens with Sameera Mahaa firing shots at and murdering DSP Ashok Krishna, who supposedly raped Sameera. The case is filed as an act of self-defense. The police and Ashok's family hire Ratnakar, a prestigious criminal lawyer, for prosecution. Sameera's lawyer Banerjee contacts Sub Inspector Vikram Vasudev, a corrupt Sub-Inspector based in Coonoor. He takes a bribe from Sameera, who wishes for Vikram to help make sure Ratnakar does not uncover any incriminating evidence. Vikram meets Sameera in a hotel room and presses for her to fully disclose the details of the situation so that he knows where they stand in their defense. Sameera continually proclaims that Ashok had forced himself on her. Vikram reveals that he has prior knowledge that Sameera's husband Rahul is homosexual, and asks her to tell him the truth. Sameera reveals she is only a beard to Rahul, which allows him to keep up the appearance of a married heterosexual man while indulging in his true sexual interests in private. She claims she met Ashok after she got married and they became friends, but he tried to take advantage of her and that was what lead to the shooting. Vikram reveals a photo with both Sameera and Ashok from back in college, and by coercion he slowly gets Sameera to tell him that in college Ashok and Sameera were in love but later Ashok's parents did not accept their relationship because of Sameera's then middle class status. They parted ways and after 3 years they met by chance and restarted their relationship.
Vikram receives a call about a missing persons case, and explains to Sameera that Adarsh Varma, a teenage cancer patient, filed a complaint a year ago about his missing father Vinay Varma. Vikram had taken the case when Adarsh bribed him. Throughout the case, he had grown committed to helping Adarsh. Vikram found that Vinay was frequently receiving calls from a police station in Panjagutta prior to his disappearance, and his car was left damaged outside a building of the resort Vinay owns. Adarsh and his mother told Vikram that on the night of Vinay's disappearance, they gave a lift to a girl name Vaishnavi. From Vinay's phone, Vikram found a blurred picture of a street sign, which took him to a hairpin turn on a road in Coonoor, where he found a sideview mirror that had been broken off from a black car. Using CCTV camera footage from a toll, Vikram traced the black car to a rental agency in Hyderabad, where it is revealed that the car was rented by Vaishnavi Krishna. Visiting Vaishnavi's house, he realized that her husband is DSP Ashok Krishna, a cop based in Panjagutta Police Station. After leaving her house, he received a call from his commanding officer, who told him that Adarsh had been annoying police officers trying to get into an event in Hyderabad to speak with Ashok. When he finally got in, he confronted Ashok, who unintentionally dropped the knowledge that he knows Vinay Varma. While Adarsh pled with Ashok to tell him where his father is, and Ashok had his back turned to load his gun, Vikram pulled Adarsh out of sight. Vikram and Adarsh attempted to get out of the event unseen, but before they did, Adarsh spotted and pointed out who he thinks is Vaishnavi, but is actually Sameera.
Back in the present, Sameera denies that she was in Coonoor at that time, but Vikram reveals a cellphone which has Sameera's fingerprints on it but Vinay Varma's blood. He tells Sameera that she and Ashok have been named as suspects in the Vinay Varma case, and that Ratnakar will use this against her in court, convincing Sameera to reveal more of the story. She and Ashok were driving in Coonoor when they crashed into Vinay Varma around the hairpin turn. A drunken Ashok had verbally insulted and then accosted Vinay, until Sameera made him stop. They parted ways, and Ashok and Sameera arrived at a building at a resort Ashok was planning to buy. Vinay arrived minutes later, revealing that he was the owner and who Ashok was planning on buying the property from. Vinay refused to sell him the property based on their previous encounter, which led Ashok to threaten him. Sameera sent Ashok inside and tried to reason with Vinay, until he revealed that he knows she is Rahul's fiancée, and that he is friends with Rahul's parents. He threatened to tell them unless Sameera ended her relationship with Ashok, until Ashok appeared and punched Vinay. The attack led to Vinay stumbling over the fencing, off the overlook, and into the forest a hundred feet below. When they saw Vinay was clutching on to life, they rushed down to the forest to help him. Ashok batted Sameera's phone out of her hand when she tried to call an ambulance, and then he decided to finish the job instead of saving Vinay. He told Sameera he would get rid of the body, and she fled into the forest. Coming out on a road, she hitchhiked with a woman and a cancer-ridden teenager whose face was covered. Sameera soon realized they were Vinay's family, and also that she had picked up Vinay's phone instead of hers. When she arrived at their house, she dropped the phone back into the car and ran away. Sameera called Ashok from a payphone, he picked her up, and they left Coonoor. Vikram asks Sameera why her and Ashok came back to Vinay Varma's resort a year later, the place where she killed Ashok. Sameera says that she and Ashok were blackmailed into bring two crores to the resort by an anonymous person. When in the room, Sameera and Ashok decided instead to confess to Vinay's family, and professed that they only needed each other. They started to have sex, when Ashok attempted to kill Sameera to save himself, but Sameera fought back and killed Ashok.
Vikram says he does not believe her, and asserts that she had more to gain from Vinay's death. Pointing out some inconsistencies in her story, he theorizes that Sameera actually killed Vinay. Vikram tells Sameera that Ashok had not come with money to the resort, and that he was planning on confessing before he talked to Sameera. Sameera asks him how he knows, and Vikram reveals that he was the blackmailer, because he wanted money in order to help with Adarsh's treatment. In reality, Ashok had called Vikram before going into the resort, and had kept Vikram on the phone in his back pocket during his conversation with Sameera. Sameera killed Ashok when he told her he was planning on confessing. Knowing that Vikram is intent on helping Adarsh, Sameera offers him two crores to remove the body to pin Vinay's death on Ashok, so that Ratnakar could not use that against her in court. To ensure his cooperation, Sameera makes it clear she will reveal to his superiors the initial bribe he took to help her. Vikram asks where the body is, and Sameera tells him the rest of the story. After she had pushed Vinay off the overlook, he had disappeared when she got down to the forest. She told Ashok to flee in the car, while she would look for Vinay. Vinay had limped to the road, where construction was going on next to a temple. Sameera appeared behind Vinay, finished him off, and then buried him in the construction site, before hitchhiking with his family.
After hearing the full story, Vikram reveals a microphone he had planted in the room. As he starts to leave, Sameera pulls a gun on him. Police then enter from the door behind Vikram, and arrest Sameera as Vikram leaves. Sameera protests that she was conned by Vikram Vasudev, and she gave him a bribe. The lead police officer says his name is Vikram Vasudev, and that the name of the man who just left is Adarsh Varma, the son of Vinay Varma. Adarsh had originally taken up the case with the real Vikram Vasudev, and was suspicious of Sameera when he saw her on a magazine and realized her real name was not Vaishnavi. After Vikram had dropped the case due to pressure from his superiors, Adarsh compiled the evidence himself for over a year and proposed to Vikram his plan of assuming his identity and meeting with Sameera in order to make her confess. The movie ends with Adarsh and his mother arriving at the site where Sameera had buried Vinay Varma's corpse.

Cast

The film has been shot in Hyderabad and Kodaikanal. The last schedule of the film was wrapped up in July 2019.

Marketing

The official teaser of the film was unveiled on 4 August 2019 by PVP Cinema.

Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by Sricharan Pakala while lyrics are by V N V Ramesh Kumar.

Reception

Critical reception

Firstpost gave 3.5 out of 5 stars stating "This is a film which pushes you to keep up with the pace of the action, drama, and the conversations between the lead characters, because the devil lies in the details.".
The Times of India gave 3 out of 5 stars stating "Evaru is gripping to the core and has some decent technical values, but the film does lets itself down at times with gaps in the narration".