Story
Shankar (Vishwak Sen) has a rare condition where he suffers when he gets in physical contact with other human beings. He doesn't remember his past. He needs to get hold of magic mushrooms in the most difficult terrain of the Himalayas at a particular moment in order to cure his condition. Doctor Jahnavi (Chandini Chowdary) who is also doing some medical research on magic mushrooms is willing to accompany him to the Himalayas. In a village, a group of people are in search of a girl child Uma (Pedada Harika). In an illegal detention camp/lab, a subject CT-333 (Mohammad Samad) is put through terrible experiments. Rest of the story is about how these three stories get entangled.

Artists Performance

Vishwak Sen has done this movie at the early stages of his career. He looks slim and more effective as Aghora with a unique condition. His performance is top notch. Abhinaya has performed exceptionally well in a devadasi role. Chandini Chowdary is good as a passionate doctor who is in search of a rare medicine. Mohammad Samad (Tumbbad fame) is exceptionally good. Pedada Harika is very good. John Kottoly is dreadsome as a ruthless scientist. Dayanand Reddy and Shanti Rao are good. Casting choices give freshness to the film.

Story - screenplay - direction: Debutant director Vidyadhar Kagita has come up with a different story. There is a lot of depth and layers to it. He has embodied the ‘Ardhanareeswarudi Tatvam' to the story and characters. Screenplay written by Vidyadhar Kagita and Pratyush Vatyam is very good. Some of the scenes in the film have a lot of depth, but some scenes are immature and lack logic (probably due to editing where they might have deleted some content). A few scenes in the film are abstract where we need to use our mind to comprehend. The twist in climax should have been easy to understand to the common movie goer. In films like these, we expect realistic treatment and logic. However, the entire journey in the Himalayas doesn't look logical (for ex, Jahnavi travels in Hamalays without even gloves). It’s a promising debut for the director. With the right resources and guidance, he will grow big.

Other departments: Cinematography by (Vishwanath Reddy Chelumalla & Rampy Nandigam) is good and offers a fresh perspective as it was shot with multiple cameras of different resolutions (due to budgetary constraints). I also liked the way color-grading was done to the visuals (orange color - devadasi story, teal color - clinical trials, blue color - Shankar story). You can also see different textures to the visuals - and some resemble us of the grain we see when shot with real film cameras. Background score provided by Naresh Kumaran is very effective. Sound design by Sync Cinema is excellent. Production design by Pravalya Duddupudi deserves a special mention as the landscapes, cultures and period timeline gives a lot of scope to be creative yet authentic. Editing by Raghavendra Thirun is fine. VFX work by Sunil Raju Chinta is decent. Producer Karthik Sabareesh deserves a pat on the back for sticking to it despite hurdles and delivering a product they believed in.

Analysis: Gaami film was started 5 years back as a crowd-funded film. This film has a unique story line and a different screenplay. The director has made the movie with a lot of conviction. The narration of the story is pretty slow. This film is for the connoisseurs of cinema with a distinct taste. Normal audiences might find it hard to connect to it. If you are looking for a different film and a different world, you may give it a try.