From April 2024 to the middle of 2025, at least six films were released with Suhas in the lead role but none of them gave him the expected positive result. He took a pause for about six months in releasing his films in theatres and came up with a comedy-drama film ‘Hey Balwanth’. The inform producers and the presenters, Vamsi Nandipati and Bunny Vasu, took the responsibility of releasing the film and generated enough curiosity among the audience with some interesting promotions. After getting its title changed from ‘Hey Bhagawan’ to ‘Hey Balwanth’, due to the censor board objections, the film was released in theatres today. Did Suhas, score a theatrical hit after tasting not-so-favourable results with his last few films in lead roles? Did the actress, Shivani Nagaram, continue her success streak? Did Vamsi Nandipati and Bunny Vasu, deliver yet another successful film? How did the director, Gopi Atchara, do? Did Vivek Sagar’s music help the film? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Krishna(Suhas), grew up watching his father(Naresh) working day in and day out. He wants to take up his father’s business after he finishes his post-graduation in business management. But, Krishna’s father asks him to find a good job elsewhere. To prove his worth as a worthy successor to his father, he joins as a business consultant at an NGO which is being managed by Mithra(Shivani Nagaram) and eventually falls in love with her. When everything seems to be going well, Krishna’s father suffers a heart attack and the doctors ask him to take bed rest for a few months. Since his father has to take a rest, Krishna decides to run the family business. What happens when Krishna decides to run the business? What exactly is the profession of Krishna’s father? How did Mithra’s family get themselves involved with Krishna’s family business? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Suhas did a good job with his performance in comedy episodes. His ability to appear so effortless while generating fun, worked well at many places in the film. He did a decent job during the emotional sequences. Shivani Nagaram, delivered a decent job with her performance. She too did well during the comedy portions. Especially, the way she delivered the dialogue ‘Maadi chala orthodox family’, multiple times in the film, generated good laughs.

Sudarshan’s comedy timing and dialogue delivery are the major plus points of the film. He generated a good amount of laughs in almost every sequence in which he appeared. V K Naresh, made his presence felt during the emotional sequences. However, the comedy portions for his character, would have been written and executed in a better way. Vennela Kishore generated good laughs, although a few people may find it uncomfortable, in one episode in the first half. Harsha Vardhan and Ajay Ghosh with their timing, generated a few laughs here and there. Senior actress, Annapurnamma and the veteran actor, Babu Mohan, in crucial roles made their presence felt.

Technicalities:

Vivek Sagar came up with two decent to good songs. And, his background score was alright. Overall, his work in the film is adequate. Cinematography by Mahi Reddy Pandugula, is decent. He delivered a standard output to suit the scale and theme of the film. Viplav Nysdam’s editing would have been a bit better in the second half. Production values by ‘Trishul Visionary Studios’, are adequate. Let’s discuss the work of director and writer, Gopi Atchara, in detail in the analysis section.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Fun Portions
2.⁠ ⁠Sudarshan’s Comedy Timing
3.⁠ ⁠A Few Good Dialogues

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Unexciting Drama
2.⁠ ⁠Clichéd Narration
3.⁠ ⁠Melodrama

Analysis:

The entire promotional campaign of the film revolved around the profession or the business of the lead character and his family. In a way, the makers succeeded in generating curiosity and setting the expectations right among the audience by stressing the word ‘business’ during the promotions. To stay away from spoilers, let us not disclose the details about the profession. The ‘business’ theme on which the story of a father and son is narrated, can be made into an out-and-out comedy drama or a serious social drama. But, the director chose to make it as a social dramedy. In doing so, he succeeded as long as the film stuck to comedy episodes, but the film lost track, the moment the director started to blend the film with drama and a message.

The film has at least five sequences that generated very good laughs. The fun quotient during the pre-interval, interval episodes and a majority of the episodes involving the actor, Sudarshan, worked in favour of the film. Considering the core plot of the film, the director deserves special appreciation for not choosing the ‘below the belt’ comedy. Barring one or two instances, the film largely had clean comedy. Apart from executing the comedy portions well, the writer and director, also came up with a few very effective and heart-touching dialogues. Especially the dialogue – ‘Mogudu, koduku, anna.. inka chala perlu petti thanani pilichina kani… Nanna ani thanani pilichinappude…mogadu…oka hero la feel avvutadu’, worked out so well in explaining the emotional turmoil of a father to his son.

When a director chooses a sensible socially relevant topic as the backdrop of the film and decides to justify a certain profession, it should be executed as a serious drama with subtle social satire to generate fun. It looks artificial and out of sync when a filmmaker generates fun using a profession and social awkwardness around it, during the first and second acts and suddenly, takes a turn during the third act of the film to ‘justify’ the profession. It is where the film lost its track. The sudden shift in tone from comedy portions to serious drama, worked against the film. Also, the drama portions are executed in a very bland manner with unexciting writing and beaten-to-death narration. The entire third act of the film appeared so out of place and bored the audience to a large extent.

Overall, Hey Balwanth, has its moments and it worked to an extent because of the comedy portions and a few well-written dialogues but the film would have been much better had better care been taken in writing and executing the drama portions, especially during the second half.

Final Verdict – Fun Worked. Drama Did Not.

Rating – 2.5/5

Related

I have mentioned before that I am a big fan of found footage films. Jennifer Van Gesell’s Water Horse took me to another realm. A realm where found footage meets a dark back story. The style has been tried many times, but these movies are hit or miss. The style never really worked until recently.

Anyway, let’s get to the review.

Synopsis

A paranormal investigator links a bizarre string of seemingly unrelated events to the disappearance of her mother.

Lake of No Return

I have seen several movies with this premise, I mean, The Blair Witch Project astounded viewers before others tried to outdo it. However, none of them were good. Water Horse isn’t just a film; it’s an entire experience.  Water Horse takes you on a ride of basic confusion. If you don’t understand the genre, there is not much I can say about this story combo. The film left me completely speechless over how well they nailed this story.

Nailing the trick

Water Horse uses a combo of an interrogation and folks being followed by a video camera, trying to get the next best story. We have seen this done in films like 21 Days that pulled this idea into my favour, complete me, it worked perfectly for a very long time. In the 90’s and early 2000’s saw a brief glance at something I will always consider a terrible film. Films such as Quarantine may have been one of the early found footage genre, and I am glad there isn’t really too much.  It took a while with strong dedication to really pull this film off, and it’s clear that Water Horse broke down all those walls and not only flashed to detectives. However, Water Horse was able to switch easily from documentary film to found footage.

The ending really caught me off guard. It was a scene I wasn’t expecting at all. Everything has a completely different ending scene. Water Horse had me between finding knowledge and studying the story, and sitting at the edge of reality. Could this story have actually happened? Probably not, but the film crew made you believe it could. We have all heard local folklore growing up, or moving to a new state, and listening to local legends, especially from senior citizens. We have also seen that done a million times over, and it is very hit or miss. The climax at the end is what I love the most. It is where the monster comes alive, and you don’t know whether to turn the movie off or let it play and infest your brain so you sleep with the light on. Water Horse also captured one of the best climax scenes in my life as a horror movie fan.

In The End

In the end, Water Horse thrilled me, and chilled me. The movie left those uncomfortable negative thoughts, maybe you will even lose sleep. These are the movies most old-school fans hunt down in the current time. I will also admit here and now that all of these blockbuster movies suck, while films like Water Horse go completely under the RADAR. I didn’t want to see anyone have sex with a scarecrow. It is all getting a little weird. The only things left for me are splatter movies, which I also love. Water Horse sits high in my fandom, and it will stay there for a long time.

Water Horse is coming to most cable and streaming services on March 17th, 2026

Stella and Gerry might not have a bad marriage, but they don’t have especially healthy one either. In the new film “Midwinter Break,” out Friday, these two Irish empty nesters beautifully portrayed by Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds have become the embodiment of the words “alone together” in their late 60s and early 70s. She goes to church. He reads, and drinks, and passes out on the recliner. Repeat. But one Christmas Eve, Stella decides to break the monotony: She books a trip for two to Amsterdam, departing as soon as possible. Gerry beams that it’s a fantastic idea and off they go to try to get out of their routine and maybe remember why they made this lifelong commitment in the first place.

An adaptation of a Bernard MacLaverty novel of the same name, “Midwinter Break” is a delicate film that stays in a minor key, but whose impact is profound if you can get on its level. Directed by theater veteran Polly Findlay making her feature debut, the film parachutes the audience into the current state of this relationship, in all its quietly contradictory beauty.

These are two people who have walked through most of their adult lives together, raising a child, living a self-imposed exile in Glasgow and now sort of watching the clock tick down on their lives. The film teases that something violent and traumatic happened many years ago in Belfast, but that they don’t talk about that, or the Troubles, at all.

We gather that nothing quite so dramatic has happened since, but you can see the distress in Stella’s face as she sits down for the nth time to remove the plastic wrap to eat some sandwiches she prepared while Gerry sleeps. It seems both then and now, they’ve opted for a change of location instead of a serious chat about things. But there’s nothing like a new location to bring all that buried discontent to the surface.

One of the loveliest things about “Midwinter Break” is how it lets Stella and Gerry be all things at once. In some moments, they’re loving and intimate, sharing a sweet before their flight takes off, laughing in the red-light district and resting their tired feet in their nice hotel room. Other times, they seem like strangers. Stella has only grown more devout as they’ve gotten older, while Gerry can’t be bothered to even accompany her to church. Later in the film, they’ll both explain why, though not to each other.

Amsterdam in winter is expectedly picturesque, and the film makes sure to have Stella and Gerry out in the fresh air as much as possible visiting real sites around town (though the interiors of the Anne Frank House were a recreation). It’s tempting to draw comparisons to the “Before” series, but Jesse and Celine are a little chattier than these two.

This is a relationship that’s all about the small moments and what’s left unsaid, which is tricky to compellingly execute on film. There aren’t big fights or particularly mean words said: And yet when Stella, nearly shaking with nerves, quietly proposes a possible change to their lives, it feels earth shattering. You’re relieved later when she wants to go out and have some fun; Gerry is too.

These may just be the ordinary, dull rhythms of a relatively stable relationship, and yet these actors make the mundane so much more. It was a brilliant stroke to let “Midwinter Break,” which could have been deadly in the transition from the page to the screen, rest on these two actors in particular, sharing the big screen for the first time. Our investment in Stella and Gerry raises real questions about long-term commitment, assumptions of stability and the possibility of change. It might also have you planning your own Amsterdam getaway in your head, hopefully with fewer weighted silences on the schedule.

“Midwinter Break,” a Focus Features release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “some strong language, bloody images, alcoholism, suggestive material and thematic material.” Running time: 90 minutes. Three stars out of four.