Epic First Semester movie review: Terribly slow film with a deliberately incomplete end - The Indian Express

Every year, thousands of Telugu students board flights to the UK, the US, Canada and Australia to finish their education in a foreign land. Their parents sell their assets and borrow money to fund a master’s degree that promises a better life. But, nobody warns them about what actually waits on the other side. The household chores that become a hassle, the fragile friendships that take an emotional toll, the relationships that sometimes begin only because they offer a familiar face in a country full of foreigners, and a career that isn’t what the university brochure promised. The individual who left home with hopes and dreams is slowly replaced by someone that their parents wouldn’t even recognise. Epic First Semester is about those changes. The film is honest about what happens when two young Indians try to build a relationship in a country that is not theirs, in a language that is not fully theirs, without the safety net of family, community or anyone who has been through it before.

Aditya, played by Anand Deverakonda, is an innocent, easy-going young man who dreams of becoming a film director. His parents, however, want him to pursue higher education. He reluctantly travels to London for his master’s degree, not because he wants to but because his father’s dream demands it.

In London, he meets Kadali, played by Vaishnavi Chaitanya, a strong-willed, independent girl. She is everything he is not: confident, direct, unbothered by what people think. An unexpected connection develops between them, and their contrasting personalities create a dynamic that is part attraction, part collision. What begins as fun evolves into something deeper, and the film follows the relationship through its different phases: the excitement, the ego clashes, the adjustments, the intimacy and the inevitable confrontation with reality.

Epic is set against the backdrop of London’s university culture and is told as the first part of a planned two-film story. It ends not with a resolution but with a chapter break, setting up Epic Final Semester as the continuation.

Anand Deverakonda is well-cast. The innocence, the slightly awkward charm, the way he reacts to Vaishnavi’s directness with confusion and admiration simultaneously, all of it works. He is not stretching into unfamiliar territory here. This is a variation of the space he has occupied since Baby, but he does it with enough specificity that the character feels like a person rather than a type.

Vaishnavi Chaitanya does a solid job with Kadali. She brings the required conviction to the role and her chemistry with Anand remains the film’s most reliable asset. But the writing does not push Kadali far enough. She is described as strong and independent, but the film does not test that strength or independence in a way that creates tension. She is a good character on paper who needed a better screenplay to become a great one.

Set in the world of 90’s – A Middle Class Biopic, the supporting cast, including Sivaji and Vasuki as family members, is functional but underdeveloped. Better writing for these characters could have added emotional weight to the story.

The interactions between the lead couple are the film’s strongest pillar. The conversations feel lived-in rather than two actors just reading their lines. Kalyan Shankar, who plays a supporting comic role, adds energy to these portions.

The portions involving their first physical intimacy are handled with more candour than most Telugu films allow. The film discusses intimacy, female health and the logistics of living together as a young couple in a foreign country. As audience, we are allowed to feel the tension, awkwardness and sensitivity towards these topics, which is a big win for this film. However, the problem with this film is that it is terribly slow. The conversations, while individually engaging, begin to circle the same emotional territory without advancing the story.

When conflict finally arrives, in the pre-climax and climax portions, the emotional moments land because Anand and Vaishnavi pitch them correctly. But they arrive after the film has already tested the audience’s patience with over an hour of beating around the bush.

The ending is deliberately incomplete. The film stops rather than offering a conclusion, with a sequel announcement. The connection to Aditya Hasan’s 90s web series, which was a hit, is present but does not add meaningful value to the story.

Hesham Abdul Wahab’s music is the film’s most consistent technical strength. The songs are well-composed and well-placed, and the background score elevates several scenes that would have fallen flat without it. In a film that relies heavily on conversations and quiet emotional moments, having a composer who understands how to score silence and pauses is invaluable. Hesham delivers on that front.

Azeem Mohammad’s cinematography captures London with warmth and the Wanaparthy portions with a natural, lived-in quality. The production design of the London flat where much of the second half takes place is convincing and intimate.

Navin Nooli’s editing needed more work. Several conversations run longer than they should. Scenes that establish the same emotional beat two or three times needed to be trimmed to one. The film’s pacing issues are as much an editing problem as a writing one. A tighter cut, losing 15-20 minutes from the middle sections, would have made this a significantly more effective film.

Epic First Semester is a film that has the right pair, the right music and the right intentions but not the right screenplay. Anand Deverakonda and Vaishnavi Chaitanya’s chemistry remains their biggest asset, and the candour with which the film treats young relationships, is refreshing by Telugu cinema standards. The deliberately incomplete ending, designed to set up Epic Final Semester, will leave audiences debating whether they watched a film or the first half of one.

If you are a fan of the Anand-Vaishnavi pair and are willing to sit through the slower stretches for the moments where their chemistry clicks, Epic has enough to hold your attention.