[#Inktober2017]Spyder (2017)Directed by A R MurugadossFor the last 10 days I had been travelling for work, and was at Vijayawada and Vizag. A couple of days back, I watched "Spyder" at Varun INOX, Vizag.Mahesh Babu plays Shiva, an intelligence agent at a think tank whose job is listening in and analysing phone conversations, to identify anything that might indicate terrorism or a threat to national security. One such phone call and ensuing murders puts him on the trail of demented serial killer Bhairavudu (S J Surya), who is obsessed with death. Rakul Preet plays Shiva's love interest.I thought the movie was nicely done. Mahesh Babu was good as the lead and S J Surya made a really effective villain. The cinematography (Santosh Sivan), production design and the overall look of the movie was top notch. Harris Jayaraj's music was decent but not extraordinary (some of the themes recall his own work in earlier movies). I found the tone of the movie to be a bit uneven. Had they focused entirely on the cat and mouse game between hero and villain, and upped the darkness / violence quotient (the flashback sequence showing the 'birth' of Bhairavudu was deliciously dark), and made it more gritty, it would have been a very efficient thriller. Wherever they deviated from that and added a little humour, I felt it didn't work as well. There are a couple of scenes which are inventive (like the TV serial bit) but really require you to suspend disbelief. The visual effects weren't up to par in some places, which was a bit distracting.Rakul Preet looked great in the movie but her character is criminally wasted. They spared no expense on her look, but the character gets no development. But for one contribution towards the end, you could remove her entirely and it would make no difference to the plot.Overall though, I quite enjoyed "Spyder" and would rate it a 7/10.This is a sketch of Mahesh Babu as Shiva from the movie. It was a relatively quicker sketch done with Bic ballpoint and a white gel pen.Tagging #Inktober @inktober @jakeparker as well. #290 / 1-Oct-17
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