70mm Talkies, Chotee Film Productions and Knownsense Entertainment’s Alpha Beta Gamma (A) is a lockdown story of a lady, her estranged husband and her boyfriend, all forced to be in the same house owing to circumstantial restrictions.
It is lockdown time due to COVID-19. Chiranjeev/Jai (Amit Kumar Vashisth) and Mitali (Reena Aggarwal) are an estranged married couple. One day, Mitali calls Jai over to their house (now occupied by her) to discuss divorce. Jai meets Mitali’s boyfriend, Ravi (Nishan Nanaiah), there. Seeing the sensitivity of the situation, Ravi leaves the house to give them space, but he returns soon thereafter as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has imposed restrictions on movement to and fro the building. Whether they like it or not, Jai, Mitali and Ravi will now have to live together for 14 days. What happens thereafter? Does Jai agree to the divorce? What are the vibes between the three?
Shankar Srikumar and Menka Sharma have written a story in the format of an adult comedy. Of course, since it is a story about three people thrown together in a very typical situation, it has its limitations. Besides other things, it gets monotonous because almost the entire drama takes place in one house. However, the story does have its moments — some comic, some romantic, some interesting, and others not so interesting. The duo’s screenplay is quite engaging because the interaction between the three adults is well-written. But the point about Jai being so jealous of Ravi that he doesn’t want to grant Mitali divorce seems a bit forced, especially because the two are already estranged since long. Also, repeated conversations about divorce do tend to get boring. It must also be added that the drama would appeal mainly to the festival circuit audience. The dialogues, penned by the two writers, are fair.
Amit Kumar Vashisth does well in the role of Chiranjeev/Jai. Reena Aggarwal is good as Mitali. Nishan Nanaiah performs ably as Ravi. Saavi Kundra (as Jai’s friend, Shekhar), Hemant Sharma (as watchman Birpal), Nishikant Joshi (as Mr. Fernandes), Sangeeta Prasad (as Mrs. Fernandes) and Aneetha Muraleedharan (as Ravi’s mother, Bindu Varma) lend the desired support.
Shankar Srikumar’s direction is average. Biplaab Dutta’s music is so-so. Lyrics (Raghvan Sampurna, Menka Sharma and Rupa Srikumar) are alright. Kartik Kumar Bhagat’s cinematography is fair. Janhavi Wadke’s production designing is functional. Mandar M. Sawant’s editing ought to have been sharper.
On the whole, Alpha Beta Gamma is an average fare but its box-office prospects are bleak because of factors like lack of face value, lack of promotion and, therefore, awareness about the film and its release, etc.
Released on 8-3-’24 at Movie Time Goregaon (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru VK Films. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over.