Kudi Yedamaithe: A crafty, must-watch thriller

Kudi Yedamaithe

Telugu (Streaming on Aha)

Web series: Season 1 (8 episodes)

Director: Pawan Kumar

Cast: Amala Paul, Rahul Vijay, Ravi Prakash, Nithya Shri

Rating: 3.5/5

Kudi Yedamaithe, the latest web series on Aha, is a stylish execution of the time-loop concept. Ram Vignesh’s interesting story is engagingly portrayed on screen by director Pawan Kumar. The film scores high on the technical front and shows how a quality team is vital in pulling off complex thrillers.

Adi (Rahul Vijay), a delivery boy, and Durga (Amala Paul), a police officer, are central to the story. The duo gets trapped in a time loop and relives one day’s incidents. The two try hard to break off the cycle. However, escaping the loop only invites fresh problems.

Initially, the film feels like a slow-burn thriller. We associate a web series with a vast story combined with multiple layers. The world of Kudi Yedamaithe is small and it takes time to unravel its secrets. So for a while, you feel there is not much happening.

Yet the early portions are never less than watchable. Ram Vignesh scripts a world of two individuals from drastically different professionals suffering from similar issues. Adi and Durga are haunted by their past and struggle to sleep. They live a lonely and stress-filled life in a fast-paced city.

It helps that the show complements the character studies with minor surprises in the first three episodes. Of course, the nature of the concept makes repetitive scenes inevitable but they demand our close attention.

Kudi Yedamaithe shifts gear in the fourth episode and never looks back. As the story evolves, Pawan’s team makes sure the ride is an edge-of-the-seat affair.

Advaitha Gurumurthy, the gifted cinematographer, does a terrific job. With varied angles and movements, he keeps us hooked on the drama. What’s more impressive is how his camera gets intimate with the people’s emotions.

Music composer Poornachandra Tejaswi gets ample room to experiment. In crucial scenes, his score organically elevates the tension. He also complements the engaging drama with a brooding score. The unappealing, dramatic theme music is a let-down though.

Pawan’s films are known to have innovative editing patterns. His regular collaborator Suresh Arumugam blends creativity with great sense to give us a racy experience.

Both Amala Paul and Rahul Vijay adopt the less-is-more approach to their acting. Their minimalistic style works. In a time loop plot, their actions are fixed but they still have to find a way out and know their future. Both the actors revel in this strange situation.

Playing a villain is a walk in the park for Ravi Prakash while Nithya Shree, after Vrithra (2019), shows she has an intriguing screen presence.

With Kudi Yedamaithe, Pawan has become synonymous with smartly crafted thrillers. The director, who essays delightful cameo in the series, has an unerring eye for details. Playing with narratives is right up his alley. We have seen in Lucia (2012) and U Turn (2016) and we see that in abundance in this show as well.

He beautifully balances the time loop idea with the film’s subplots of Adi dreaming to be an actor and Durga aiming to nab a serial kidnapper. He nails the thriller genre by knowing how to dial the tension up and down.

The writing could have striven for a greater emotional impact on the audience. That said, Kudi Yedamaithe’s exciting story is boosted by fine direction. It ends with a unique twist worthy enough to keep us waiting for the second season. After a steady start, this series moves at great speed and ends on a high.