NERD Review – Excruciatingly Painful and Dumb

BOTTOM LINE: Excruciatingly Painful and Dumb

Rating: 3.5/10

What Is the Story About?

Hashvanth (Hashvanth Vanga) is a lonely guy who works as a software employee. He goes about his daily routines like a robot programmed to do stuff. What happens when the different women he meets all go missing is what the series is all about?

Performances?

Hashvanth looks the part that has been written, but he can’t act. He fails to bring depth to the character. It could have quickly helped him gain the audience attention, had the act been good. Unfortunately, Hashvanth fails spectacularly.

The first half of the series makes him look convincing, though. It is also the part where he is mainly emotionless, stone-faced and needs to interact with various girls casually. As nothing is happening, Hashvanth passes it off decently, but when the crux of the show arrives, he fizzles out.

Analysis

Deva Ganesh, who is the director of the series, is also credited with the story and screenplay. In the three critical aspects, Deva Ganesh has succeeded in only the story department. At the end of the whole ordeal, it is the only thing that stands out.

Nerd consists of seven episodes and the way the first three episodes commence, many, if not all, would just stop watching it at any point. There is nothing to hold the interest as the screenplay is almost non-existent. It is just a set of scenes happening one after the other with no purpose or reason.

If one could brave past those three episodes and reach the fourth one, finally a few moments of engagement appear. Still, the terrible direction and horrendous writing and acting ruin it, but at least there is a semblance of a story taking place.

The conclusion is, decent story wise with one particular element involving the sculpture being outstanding idea wise. That is, on paper, one might feel the subject to be fair, but when it is executed as poorly as seen in Nerd, there is no hope, really. One even gets a feeling of a short film being expanded for a web series given how it all unfolds.

Coming to the only good aspect, which is the story, if one takes a look at it seriously, there are logical holes in it as well. The director tries to bypass it with the truth or fiction narrative choice, but that only makes it worse, as one can predict it.

The underlying problem chosen for the protagonist is a good one, in that, it helps if many people are made aware of it. But, the way it has been developed is likely to stigmatise those people further rather than give them a positive assurance. It also directly feeds into the narrative, by the end, that such people take a disastrous recourse.

Overall, Nerd is a short film level concept expanded to web series with terrible direction, writing, and performances. At seven episodes length, it does feel like a waste of time.

Other Artists?

There are six female leads in the movie. Luckily everyone is properly given credits (hope Zee5 continues this with all of their series) at the end of each episode. Otherwise, it would have been hard to remember even one of them. Not only is the performance an issue, but they are also half baked roles with no depth or grit.

Arjun Ambati plays a cop with a mass attitude. He seems to enjoy doing the part, and it shows. Sadly, it is another poorly written character with erratic behaviour to add. The way it ends is the most disappointing part. Naveen Abhi is alright when being a sidekick to the lead. However, when the focus is on him, he too fails to rise to the occasion. The rest are forgettable.

Music and Other Departments?

Naren RK Siddhartha seems to be the go-to guy for these web series productions. His music is boring and one dimensional in Nerd. The cinematography by Srinivas is okay when compared to the other departments, and overall accomplishments. Venkat Krishna Chikkala’s editing is messy in parts. The writing, much like the screenplay, is non-existent. Such is the direness that many sequences involving dialogues are glossed over with background music running the show.

Highlights?

Story
Climax

Drawbacks?

First three episodes
Screenplay
Direction

Did I Enjoy It?

No

Will You Recommend It?

No

NERD Review by Siddartha Toleti

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