After playing the streetsmart Tara Khanna in Prime Video’s Made in Heaven, Sobhita Dhulipala is back on the OTT platform with a film this time. Her character, Sandhya Nelluri, is every bit as refreshingly Telugu as she is in Cheekatilo, a crime thriller with an interesting idea. However, in a bid to make social commentary on a sensitive subject, it inadvertently sends out mixed messaging. A film like this needed more sensitivity and nuance, but what we get feels performative.
Cheekatilo movie review: Sobhita Dhulipala plays a podcaster covering a true crime case.
Cheekatilo story
Sandhya Nelluri (Sobhita Dhulipala) quits a Neralu Ghoralu-style TV show to kickstart a podcast from a dusty room in her home. She wants to report crime with facts and sensitivity, instead of turning it into a spectacle for the audience. Poised to be married to her boyfriend, Amar (Vishwadev Rachakonda), Sandhya is on the precipice of happiness. Except, an incident from her past that most women can relate to still haunts her. And a serial rapist and killer seems as intrigued by her as she is by him.
Movie Review
Cheekatilo
2.5/5
Crime Thriller
Podcaster Sandhya Nelluri (Sobhita Dhulipala) finds herself embroiled in a serial rapist and killer case, only to find it getting personal.
Cheekatilo does a good job at calling out society for enabling abuse and refusing to take accountability. But the film needed more nuance and sensitivity.
Cheekatilo review
Cheekatilo banks on a heavy premise and explores the dark underbelly of how our country views sexual abuse and molestation. Now, while a film like this gets a protagonist who is personally invested in the case she’s exploring for various reasons, everything about it seems surface-level. Sandhya (and Sobhita) stays mostly straight-faced through some of the most heartbreaking situations, which makes it harder to connect with them. In fact, more than Sandhya, it is the other characters who seem to have more heft, including the killer.
Exploring the topic of abuse
Yes, Cheekatilo might be about catching a serial killer on the surface, but director Sharan Koppisetty does a good job at asserting that the real problem is how society brushes away, refuses to talk about or worse, enables abusers while silencing the victims. Sandhya gets a beautiful callback at the dinner table, where, after being asked to adjust to her circumstances, she learns to speak up. The expectations of everything from perfect victims to expecting survivors to speak up publicly are called out in their own way.
However, amid all this, a closer look reveals problematic cracks. A powerful man threatens rape in front of a policeman, yet nothing comes of it. A character remarks that a woman is ‘lucky’ she is dead, unlike his loved one, who suffers with the aftermath of abuse. Cheekatilo even veers into the cliché of viewing women as goddesses rather than people, as Aigiri Nandini chants play in the background of a key scene. All this after multiple women wonder when they’ll be handed basic human dignity.
Even as Cheekatilo tells you that men can be victims of abuse too, it doesn’t save a single moment of grace for the survivor there. Instead, it's made to seem like the cycle of abuse is inevitable in some cases. In any other film, moments like these would not ring as loud as they do in Cheekatilo, unfortunately veering from the film's message.
The law of convenience
Cheekatilo also suffers from the ‘law of convenience’ wherein everything conveniently happens just to move the plot without putting in much effort. Sandhya is allowed to participate in a police investigation and is let off with a slap on the wrist for not following orders. An ex-boss conveniently agrees to help.
A key character conveniently moves around without being detected for years, with just a change of scenery saving them. Even the killings are methodically precise, complete with jasmine flowers and cow bells in some cases, and yet, mistakes are conveniently made. The only place this trope works is how, despite that, the killer is never caught.
In conclusion
Cheekatilo is a great start to having difficult conversations and a hard look at society that refuses to take accountability for enabling abuse. And while Sharan seems sensitive to this for the most part, there are moments when the film feels lacking in it. Sandhya gets the perfect closure to her journey by reclaiming a space she once felt unsafe in. Many others in the film don’t get that chance, and that’s unfortunately reality.
Despite having a Master's degree in Journalism and over a decade of experience in print and digital media as a field reporter and sub-editor at organisations such as The Times of India and Reader's Digest, Neeshita Nyayapati remains a movie buff first and a Chief Content Producer second. She fell in love with movies in childhood and believes nothing matches the magic of watching a good film that moves you with a warm tub of popcorn in hand. Her love for writing about cinema follows that.
Come Friday, you'll find her at her happy place, the movies, catching the latest rom-com or masala offering, for reviews or otherwise. As for the rest of the week, she's here reporting the juiciest news in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi or bringing out the best of celebs in interviews. While her niche is Telugu cinema, Neeshita likes to dabble in a little bit of everything to stay up to date. From film announcements to scandals and hard news angles, she has explored it all.
A good book, a comforting cup of hot chocolate, puppy kisses and a stunning beach view are all she needs to unwind. Her passion for biking and travelling has taken her to various places across the country. She has found peace in everything from the frozen lakes of Gangtok to the coffee plantations of Coorg and the dense forests of Bandipur, to the monasteries of Darjeeling. But no matter where she goes, Neeshita loves coming across inspiring and moving stories.Read More
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