Story
Vedavyas (Brahmanandam) is a retired man who is passionate about storytelling. He enters a competition of story telling despite his daughter’s (Swathi Reddy) discouragement. He narrated 5 stories with each story referring to one sense each.

There might be some spoilers in the stories, pls don’t read if you are going to watch film immediately.

Story 1 - Sight: Vihari (Naresh Agasthya) is a frustrated software engineer who is restless. He happens to see a postcard photo from his childhood. It features a beautiful beach. Rest of the story is about how he makes it a mission to visit a beach in Pondicherry to get some peace of mind.

Story 2 - Taste: Subhash (Rahul Vijay) is a youngster who wants to marry a girl with an individuality. But his parents keep getting matches he doesn’t like. He finally decides to go ahead with parents’ choice without bothering about his individual taste. He says yes to Lekha (Shivatmika). She senses that something is wrong and invites him for a chat at a cake shop. Rest of the story is about how she makes him open up and realize that he had made the right choice.

Story 3 - Smell: Ramanathan (Samudrakani) is a retired employee. He keeps smelling bad odor which is not felt by his wife (Divyavani) and others. Then he realizes later that it’s the smell of bed. His pregnant daughter who is away in in-laws home is due for delivery. Ramananthan consults a doctor about it and the doctor realizes that it has something to do with his past.

Story 4 - Touch: Sekhar (Vikas) is a lower middle class man who loves his wife Devi (Divya Sripaada). She is pregnant. He notices one morning that she is unconscious. He takes her to a corporate hospital in Hyderabad from his town. Doctor reveals that she is suffering from a terminal illness and it takes at least 10 lakhs to treat. They don’t have such money. Meanwhile parents of both husband and wife keep blaming each other. Rest of the story is about how Sekhar devouts to his wife despite hardships from everywhere.

Story 5 - Sound: Chitra (Swathi Reddy) is a physically challenged writer. She along with her husband Vikram (Adarsh Balakrishnan) starts a company called Cassettes to narrate stories to kids. Roopa (Praanya) is a kid who loves audio stories of Chitra. Roopa’s father Sambayya (Uttej) wants an online wish from Chitra to his daughter. Meanwhile, a corporate company which is about to take over Cassettes makes some hard decisions that hurt Chitra’s emotional attachment to her work. Rest of the story is about how Chitra deals with it.

Artists Performance

It’s nice to see Brahmanandam in a non-comic role. He is excellent as a retired employee who wants to pursue his passion. Swathi Reddy has done two roles, she is subdued and unglamorous as the daughter of Brahmanandam. She is excellent as a physically challenged writer in the last episode. Samudrakani is good as a guy who is suffering from a psychological issue. Sivatmika is a very good actress and it shows off in the cafe conversations in the film. Divya Sripaada has been limiting herself to sad and victim characters. She is good. But she should start doing other types of characters as well. Baby Praanya is good in the last story. Uttej is very good as the kid's father. It’s nice to see Adarsh Balakrishna in a positive role. Naresh Agasthya, Rahul Vijay, Vikas suited the roles well. Divyavani and SriVidya Maharshi are adequate.

Technical departments

Story - screenplay - direction: It’s an anthology film where five stories are being narrated by a retired employee who is passionate about writing. Each story has one sense attached to it. The best story in terms of emotion and execution is the last one featuring Swathi Reddy. It emotionally involves audiences. I also loved cafe conversation in the 2nd episode. Very mature and interesting conversation. I liked the idea of placing the interval after 2 and half episodes by giving a thriller angle to the 3rd story (which later was justified by Brahmanandam character comparing the first half and second half of the film to A and B sides of a cassette). First story of the film is ineffective. The 2nd story gets better towards the end. The 3rd story is a little dark and might not appeal to everybody. The 4th story has got a good story, but emotions didn’t work on the screen. Last story gives a high. Debutant director Harsha Pulipaka does a decent job. But effectiveness is missing in some of the stories. However, the sensitivity and honesty is intact in his storytelling.

Other departments: Music by Prashanth R Vihari is an asset. Cinematography by Raj K Nalli is decent. Production design is good. Dialogues by Harsha Pulipaka and Sandeep Raj are fine (especially the cafe conversation in the 2nd story). Editing by Garry BH is alright. Production values by Ticket Factory and S Originals are good.

Analysis: Anthology films are very rare in Telugu. Films of this genre will not create interest in a common moviegoer unless these stories are linked to an interesting climax (like in Awe and ℅ Kancharapalem). All five stories in this film are independent/unrelated to each other. Only connection is that the storyteller themed it as 5 senses film (Sight, Taste, Smell, Touch & Sound). Last story in the film is good. A couple of stories partly work (2nd and 3rd stories). The 1st and the 4th stories are not satisfactory. On the whole, Panchathantram is a sensible movie made with honesty. But not good enough to engage in theaters. May work well on the OTT space.