118 (film)

118 is a 2019 Indian Telugu action thriller film written and directed by Cinematographer turned film director K. V. Guhan on his Tollywood directorial debut. The film stars Kalyan Ram, Shalini Pandey and Nivetha Thomas in the lead roles. The music for the film is composed by Shekar Chandra and the film is produced by Mahesh S Koneru under the production company East Coast Production. . The film was recorded as super hit in the box office.

Plot
Gowtham (Nandamuri Kalyan Ram), an investigative journalist, gets a dream when he stays in room no 118 in a resort. In his dream, he sees a girl getting beaten and a car being thrown into lake. After waking up, he comes to a conclusion that he got similar dream earlier too when he stayed in the same room in previous months. He starts investigating the case to find out who the girl is. Though his wedding is fixed with Megha (Shalini Pandey), he is keener on finding about this girl who turns out to be Aadhya (Nivetha Thomas). He accidentally stumbles upon a money laundering operation by the brother of the home minister which turns out to be a sensational news. As a result of this, the goons chase him to a road which he previously identifies in his dreams. He jumps into the lake and sees the empty car. With the help of police, he brings the car out and identifies that the car belongs to a church. When he goes to the church, the father tells him that the car was driven by Esther and when shown the picture of Esther, he realizes there is more that meets the eye.

Cast

 * Nandamuri Kalyan Ram as Gautam
 * Shalini Pandey as Megha
 * Nivetha Thomas as Aadhya
 * Nassar as Mahendra Mohan
 * Mahesh Achanta
 * C.V.L. Narasimha Rao
 * Harshavardhan
 * Rajeev Kanakala
 * Prabhas Sreenu as Ramesh
 * Hari Teja as Esther
 * Geetha Bhascker
 * Ashok Kumar
 * Mukhtar Khan
 * Aadarsh Balakrishna
 * Bharath Reddy as police officer
 * Chammak Chandra
 * Sivannarayana

Production
The film marks the directorial debut for cinematographer KV Guhan in Telugu film industry who also marks his return to directorial after previously directing a 2010 Tamil-language film titled Inidhu Inidhu which was remake of 2007 blockbuster Telugu film Happy Days. The filming began in around May 2018 and the first look poster of the film was unveiled on 5 July 2018 on the occasion of lead actor Kalyan Ram's birthday.

Marketing
The official teaser of the film was launched on 18 December 2018. The official trailer of the film was unveiled on 15 February 2019.

The film will have its official theatrical release on 1 March 2019 according to the official trailer of the film following the wrap up of post production work which concluded in around February 2019.

Soundtrack
Music composed by Shekar Chandra. Music released on Aditya Music

Reception
Neeshita Nyayapati of Times of India gave 3.5/5 stating "Just don't try to dig too deep or you might miss out on a fine thriller".

Manoj Kumar R of Indianexpress gave 2/5 stating "KV Guhan's film is rife with unoriginal ideas that it becomes very difficult for the audience to forgive and just focus on the story".

Hemanth Kumar of Firstpost gave 2.5/5 stating "Kalyan Ram goes on a wild goose chase to find the plot of KV Guhan's thriller".