Kairam Vaashi reviews Epic: First Semester, written and directed by Aditya Haasan and starring Anand Deverakonda and Vaishnavi Chaitanya, for The Hollywood Reporter India. Aditya, an early-20s film-obsessed kid from Wanaparthy, is shipped off to the UK against his wishes for a one-year course that will supposedly get him "settled".On day one he meets Kadali, they become flatmates to split the rent, and predictably end up sharing far more than expenses, until the relationship arrives at the question the film wants to ask: at what cost do we keep this going?
The trouble, Kairam argues, is that the film pitches these as thought-provoking questions about love, marriage, career and societal pressure when most of the audience has already lived through them and found their answers. Beyond a few bright spots, including the scenes with MAD director Kalyan Shankar, the touches involving Aditya's parents and Hesham Abdul Wahab's melodious songs, Epic is as derivative, eccentric and pretentious as it gets, with the UK backdrop perhaps its only distinguishing feature.
Kairam calls it his shortest review yet for THR India, and sees no reason to hold an audience captive when there's nothing fresh left to say. The THR Bottomline: Epic tries to engage us with numerous questions, but the only one Kairam is left asking is "Why?" Epic: First Semester is now in theatres.
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