August 16 1947 Movie Review: Ghajini Director Has Produced This, Why Didn’t He Forget About This Idea?

August 16 1947 Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Gautham Karthik, Revathy, Richard Ashton, Jason Sha, Pugazh

Director: NS Ponkumar

August 16 1947 Movie Review Out! ( Photo Credit – Poster from August 16 1947 )

What’s Good: Apart from the fictional characters in the film getting independence, even you feel free while exiting from the audi

What’s Bad: Everything apart from the basic idea of the film, which might’ve started it all

Loo Break: Even if you watch this film during your loo break, it’ll still be as bad as it’s

Watch or Not?: Only if you get paid to watch sh*tty films! Oh, wait…

Available On: Theatrical Release

Runtime: 143 minutes

User Rating:

Singaad, a fictional village set in Madras during the time just before the country got Independence, is unaware of the fact that Britishers are leaving the country. The small village consists of a few people who are slaves to its Dictator, Major Robert (Richard Ashton) and his r*pist son Justin (Jason Sha).

The story spans over a few days before the independence in which Param (Gautham Karthik), Robert’s footsoldier but an ‘Indian’ at heart, decided to unite the villagers against the Britishers for his selfish reasons. At a place where men bury their daughters alive only to avoid them getting r*ped by British rulers, workers aren’t allowed to drink water or pee during working hours, even a day’s delay in conveying the news of Independence might end up in destroying many lives.

August 16 1947 Movie Review Out! ( Photo Credit – Still from August 16 1947 )

August 16 1947 Movie Review: Script Analysis

N.S. Ponkumar manages the script, screenplay & direction of the film, making sure to ruin every department equally. The whole movie seems to be designed after a one-liner development of “A village unaware of Independence because of its brutal British rulers.” To all my aspiring writers, read the one-liner and think of the worst probable story you can get around it; it’d still be better than it’s shown here.

A scenario reenactment of what NS Ponkumar was asked to do:

Makers: How much drama will you add to dramatise the situation of the film?

NS Ponkumar: Yes.

The brutality shown to dramatise the situation doesn’t connect even once because of the sheer lack of building anything around it. So, even when an underage girl gets caught (and almost groped) for working in disguise as a boy, you won’t feel a thing because of the lacklustre skills at world-building.

August 16 1947 Movie Review: Star Performance

Gautham Karthik, who looked like a love child of Kichcha Sudeep and Allu Arjun to me, despite getting the meatiest role, emerged as underwhelming due to the film’s writing. There’s no single scene where he can optimally showcase his acting skills.

Revathy plays the female lead without any voice of her own. She gets into the dumb skin of her character profusely well but doesn’t really get any chance to shine bright.

Richard Ashton, as the big brutal Brit hams more than Rakhi Sawant, is hamming nowadays on Instagram. He’s so loud and over the top that he crosses all the lines which could’ve restrained him from being a caricature. Jason Sha remains subtle & wicked at the same time, holding the skills to annoy you with his mere presence.

August 16 1947 Movie Review: Direction, Music

NS Ponkumar’s debut film turns out to be a good idea executed poorly. He almost got the gist right but failed to create something intriguing. He’ll need to brush up on his writing skills first before working on the routine direction.

Sean Roldan’s background score is so loud that it overpowers the inane melodrama happening on-screen. None of the songs helps in overcoming the chaos happening otherwise.