Mukhachitram

Mukhachitram
Mukhachitram
	Release poster
Directed by	Gangadhar
Written by	Sandeep Raj
Screenplay by	Sandeep Raj
Story by	Sandeep Raj
Starring	Vikas Vasista; Priya Vadlamani; Ayesha Khan; Chaitanya Rao Madadi;
Cinematography	Sreenivas Bejugam
Edited by	Kodati Pavan Kalyan
Music by	Kaala Bhairava
Release date	9 December 2022;
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Mukhachitram (transl. Face portrait) is a 2022 Indian Telugu-language legal drama directed by Gangadhar and starring Vikas Vasista, Priya Vadlamani, Ayesha Khan and Chaitanya Rao Madadi with Vishwak Sen in an extended cameo.

Plot

Raj (Vikas Vasista) is a famous and intelligent plastic surgeon who marries Mahathi (Priya Vadlamani), a beautiful and innocent village girl who lives with her father and tutors children. Maya (Ayesha Khan) is his childhood friend who has been in love with him. She is hurt by the fact he has married someone else. She writes romantic blogs and one day, Maya gets into a vehicular accident. Mahathi donates blood to Maya even though she is pregnant which leads to her death.

In shock and depression, Raj performs plastic surgery on disfigured Maya giving her Mahathi's face. Maya then marries him as he seemingly tries to move. They make Mahathi's family believe that Mahathi is alive by showing Maya to them. Maya who is an orphan and always wanted a family for herself and she gets easily attached to them.

One day, when Raj goes out of town for work, Maya finds Mahathi's phone and listens to her recordings. In the recordings, it is revealed that Raj has killed Mahathi. Through Raj and their common friend Dr.Satya, who had feelings for the married Mahathi, she finds out that Raj is a rapist who usually forced himself on Mahathi. When she tried to fight back, he killed her and made it look like an accident. Enraged by this revelation, Maya decides to bring justice to Mahathi.

When Raj returns home, she provokes him to assault her and secretly records it. Later, she hits him hard which injures his jawline making him a mute. She files a case in court against him with the help of lawyer Viswamitra (Vishwak Sen). They win the case with Raj arrested and proving that marital rapes are prevalent not only in India but also other countries.

The film ends with Maya taking Mahathi's place in her family and telling tutoring at the latter's home. It is later revealed that Viswamitra is none other than Mahathi's paternal cousin with whom her aunt wanted to get her married.

Cast

Vikas Vasista as Dr. Raj Kumar
Priya Vadlamani as Mahathi
Ayesha Khan as Maya Fernandez
Chaitanya Rao Madadi as Dr. Satya
Vishwak Sen as Lawyer Viswamitra (extended cameo appearance)
P. Ravishankar as Lawyer Vashishta
Sunil as Dr. Varma
Sruthi Singampalli as Durgamattha, Mahathi's aunt and Viswamitra's mother
Meer S as Raghuramaiah, Mahathi's father
Bindu Chandramouli as Vashishta's wife
Divya Narni as Sruthi, Maya's friend
Rocket Raghava as Marriage broker
Bramarambika Tutika as Viswamitra's assistant lawyer
Harsh Roshan as young Raj Kumar
Baby Divya as young Maya

Reception

A critic from The Hindu wrote that "Mukhachitram makes a point about marital assault and the need to give the victim an empathetic hearing. If only it had been written, narrated and enacted better".^[1] A critic from 123telugu wrote that "On the whole, Mukhachitram has a relevant topic that works just in parts".^[2] Nelki Naresh Kumar for Hindustan Times rated 2.5 stars out of 5 stars and wrote "Ayesha Khan impresses with glamour. Vishvaksen guest-starred as a lawyer in the climax."^[3] Satya Pulagam for ABP News Telegu rated 2 stars of 5 stars and wrote "Chaitanya Rao's acting and dialogue delivery are good. His timing is laughable at times. Ayesha Khan stopped at the basics in acting. She still needs a lot of improvement. Ravi Shankar's voice helped with the role of a fire lawyer in acting."^[4]