Semma Botha Aagathey Synopsis: After a night of binge drinking, a youngster decides to invite a call girl home on the advice of his friend. When the girl ends up dead in his apartment in his absence, he has to track down the person who could have murdered her.

Semma Botha Aagathey Review: The premise of Semma Botha Aagathey is something that could have been ideal for a noir thriller - a man ends up with a dead body and his desperate attempt to clear his name. But Badri Venkatesh turns this film into a fun ride by choosing to narrate it largely as a comedy. This is the kind of film where plot and plausibility are secondary, and keeping things moving in a somewhat interesting manner is more important.

The film begins with Ramesh (Atharvaa, who is impressive) coming to his senses after a night of binge drinking. During that time, he had accepted his friend Nandhu's (Karunakaran) suggestion to get a call girl to his flat to forget his girlfriend, Madhu (Mishti Chakraborti, a rather lame debut) who has almost broken up with him. Now, Ramesh has cold feet, but the girl, Neena (Anaika Soti, providing oomph to her scenes) has already arrived. So, with no option left, he takes her inside his home. But he has to step out to admit his neighbour's dad in hospital, and when he returns, he is shocked to find Neena dead on his bed. And he cannot dispose the body that easily!

Semma Botha Aagathey is most fun in the scenes that involve the dead body. Badri Venkatesh keeps throwing in situations that complicate the hero's efforts - the neighbour he takes to the hospital dies, so there's no way the body can be brought out of the flat and disposed. And the neighbour's family wants to use his kitchen as they have run out of LPG cylinder. This provides some of the film’s best laughs as we see Nandhu, who is holding fort in the apartment while Ramesh is trying to track down the killer, finds himself having to share a loft with the dead body even as the neighbour's relative (Manobala) chooses to use the place as a bar. Karunakaran is very good in these scenes and his one-liners frequently have us laughing out loud.

Meanwhile, Ramesh's search for the real killer takes him to Palakkad. These stretches are somewhat routine as we get some revelations - the ill-gotten cash and documents of a politician that have disappeared, his men who are trying to track them down and Neena's role in the whole affair.

But the romantic track between Ramesh and Madhu, which is presented in brief flashbacks, is insignificant and could have been avoided. And going by the ridiculousness of these scenes (Madhu is a house surgeon who still sucks her thumb when she's sleeping!), even the director seems to have been least interested in doing anything with it. But he narrates his film in a flashy manner - with playful dialogues, colourful cinematography (Gopi Amarnath), peppy music (Yuvan Shankar Raja) and quirky editing patterns (KL Praveen) that we kind of remain amused. 

UNDER PROGRESS