O Kala starts with Harika signing some legal papers and emptying her office. She’s emotionally drained and upon reaching her home she falls to the ground and starts crying. Harika notices a flyer on which a number was mentioned in case anybody ever needed help. She called on that number and spent hours explaining her issue to the man on the other side of the call. The man said that he won’t stop her from taking her life but can help her ease the pain. For the same, he suggested she drinks alcohol as it would make her numb.
Harika visits a bar where she meets Harsha. As they both sit by the bar, they start talking and reveal what had happened to them. Harika reveals that she started her start-up, and her fiancee misused her. Harsha also shares what he had been suffering from. The chat between them lasted more than twelve tequilas with the result being Harika not taking her life. She was indebted to Harsha forever and starts to search for him. After she comes to know about him, she’s left shocked.
The thing that I learned from this film is that people don’t often disclose what they have been or are suffering from. It is we who should be able to recognize the signals around us and try to protect that individual. In my opinion, O Kala is a very slow film and the audience will tend to lose interest in the movie in the initial few minutes. The contents of the film were right, but the speed and manner of showing the same could have been improved to make it more interesting. It is useless if you’ve picked a good script but failed to display it on screen, and a similar thing happened with this Telugu film.
Raising the issue of good mental health and spreading positivity in others' lives, it spread yawns and dizziness around the audience. Topics like these are of increasing importance and presenting them like this in a two-hour-long film seems to be just a waste of time.
Roshni Sahota as Harika and Gourish Yeleti as Harsha were a good cast in the lead roles. The only actor I found to be lacking was the one playing the role of Sharan. The acting department needed improvement in the film as the audience will find it hard to be convinced by the words they are saying. Roshni sometimes overdid the scenes like the one in which she threw her phone while sitting in a bar next to Harsha.
The revelations made at the end of the film make it look like the script was written by a teenager who has watched so many heartbreak and health issues films/series. I don’t understand the graph of growth followed by this film as it was boring, then it was the time for revelations, then it was Harsha’s revelations, and in the end heartbreaking yet inspiring.
The only thing that I liked in the film is the bond shared by Harika and her father. They used to talk while sitting at the stairs, and his father had blind trust in her. It was her mother who used to think about how society would react, but her father was with Harika on every step of the journey.
Final Score – [4/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
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Publisher at Midgard Times