Anya’s Tutorial Review – Stylishly Shot, Partly Intriguing Horror Thriller

What Is the Story About?

Madhu (Regina Cassandra) and Anya (Nivedhithaa Sathish) are sisters living apart during the lockdown. Lavani, aka Anya, runs a live social media account sharing scary paranormal moments from her location. While it earns her followers in significant numbers, it creates trouble in the outside world and with Madhu.

What are the problems created by Anya’s Tutorial social media page? What is the secret between the sisters? How did the mystery end shape the series’ core drama.

Performances?

Regina and Nivedhithaa Sathish play the central roles of sisters in the series. Among the two, the latter has the better part easily. It is more dynamic and intriguing than the flatter and predictable Regina’s.

Nivedhithaa’s role has multiple layers to it, but the actress isn’t able to convey all of them properly. She is good in parts which require her to emote through her eyes and remain calm and intense. The character design and its revelation irritate initially, but things improve as more is revealed.

Regina, on the other hand, plays Madhu in her usual style. We have seen it all before, and it’s okay. There is nothing to complain about, but nothing is memorable either.

Analysis

Pallavi Gangireddy directs Anya’s Tutorial. It is a psychological drama primarily with a mix of horror elements in equal proportions.

The beginning of the series sets the tone for what is to follow. It is incredibly slow-paced and tests patience. But, at the same time, we see the issues related to the narrative. It is shot well, but the acting and staging of the sequence are far from satisfactory.

The same problem continues throughout with various characters acting. They give a tacky vibe to the proceedings, even though one can visibly see the efforts via slick production values.

Coming to the much bigger problem, Anya’s Tutorial simultaneously packs many ideas into the narrative. So there is the core drama involving the sisters: the social media angle and the psychological repercussion of all these during the lockdown period. Finally, the horror element with paranormal experts thrown in amidst all these. Anya’s Tutorial tries to pack all these together, resulting in an uneven and sometimes clumsy narrative. Some parts work, but as a whole, it leaves an underwhelming feeling.

The horror element involving the kid’s track and its continuation as adults could have been explored adequately. Similarly, the social media impact on youngsters’ angle is acceptable, but neither is presented compactly to create an impact. They remain good at an idea level but fail to click as a whole narratively.

The middle portion is where Anya’s Tutorial works, and that is predominantly due to the horror track. Some sequences are engaging despite the snail’s pace. The ending is rushed and leaves the scope for a new season.

Overall, Anya’s Tutorial has an interesting theme, and the narrative is packed with multiple ideas, but it only works in parts. If you like to watch something new, give it a try, but have the expectations under check.

Other Artists?

Apart from the main leads, there are many other critical parts in Anya’s Tutorial. However, they are only bits and pieces kind of roles that are functional or serviceable to the overall narrative and don’t have an impact individually otherwise.

Sameer Malla, who cares for Anya, for example, is a key character in the narrative, but there is nothing to talk about him performance-wise. Similarly, Darsh plays a critical role in highlighting the real-life repercussion of social media addiction but is again weakly executed. Nanditha and Divya, as younger Anya and Madhu, are okay. Pramodini Pammi is alright but underutilised. The rest of the actors do their bits adequately, and that’s about it.

Music and Other Departments?

The background score by Arrol Corelli is good. It adds to the mood perfectly, along with an impeccable sound design from Gautam Nair. Vijay K Chakravarthy’s cinematography is neat. The darker theme and tone are captured well, although borrowing heavily from works in similar spaces. Raviteja Girijala’s editing could have been better. The opening especially is very sluggish. The writing is decent in parts, but overall it could have been better.

Highlights?

Sound Design

Production Values

Drawbacks?

Direction

Muddled Narrative

Did I Enjoy It?

Yes, In Parts

Will You Recommend It?

Yes, But With Reservations

Anya’s Tutorial Telugu Web Series Review by Binged Bureau 

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