March 24, 2025
by Carla Hay

Directed by Ratanrishi
Telugu with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Hyderabad, India, the dramatic film “Artiste” features an all-Indian group of people representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A serial killer, who considers murder to be an artistic skill, is linked to the murder of a young woman whose brother wants revenge.
Culture Audience: “Artiste” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind watching overly long tacky movies about serial killers and vigilantes.

There’s nothing artistic about “Artiste,” a bloated mess of a crime drama about a serial killer who thinks murder is an artistic skill. Vengeful loved ones of his murder victims become vigilantes, leading to a stupid ending. You can tell the filmmakers didn’t really know how to end this 142-minute film and just threw in a bunch of ideas to see what might stick. None of it is believable.
Written and directed by Ratanrishi, “Artiste” (also titled “The Killer Artiste”) takes place in Hyderabad, India. The movie’s “hero” protagonist is a young man named Vikky (played by Santosh Kalwacherla), who is madly in love with his girlfriend Jaanu (played by Krisheka Patel) and wants to marry her. There’s a problem though: Jaanu’s mother Surekha (played by Sonia Akula) doesn’t approve of Vikky because he’s unemployed, he drinks too much alcohol, he smokes too much, and he seems to have no direction or goals in life.
By contrast, Jaanu’s father Ravindra (played by Vinay Varma), who is separated from Surekah, tells Jaanu that Jaanu can marry whomever Jaanu wants. Ravindra tells Jaanu that he will support her and approve of the marriage as long as Jaanu is happy. Jaanu prefers spending time with her father because he shows her unconditional love and is not judgmental, compared to Surekha, who can be very judgmental and somewhat cold to Jaanu.
A flashback scene shows that Surekha and Ravindra separated because she told him to move out of their home. Jaanu loves both of her parents tries to keep things as peaceful as possible between them. Jaanu says, “Even though you are both separated, you are both still great parents to me.” As for her relationship with Vikky, Jaanu loves him and tries to convince her mother that Vikky is a good man and would make a suitable husband for Jaanu.
It takes way too long for “Artiste” to establish this part of the story. There are forgettable musical numbers (with mediocre songs and basic dancing) that waste a lot of time in the movie and add nothing substantial to the plot. These upbeat musical numbers don’t fit the overall dark and menacing tone of the movie.
In the meantime, a separate storyline is shown near the beginning of the film: A serial killer named Maniac Ravi (played by Prabhakar) is seen escaping from a prison van by murdering the law enforcement officers who were in the van. Maniac Ravi can kill anyone, but he is notorious for raping and murdering women while forcing his female victims to wear the masks of celebrities. Maniac Ravi’s escape is big news in the local news media.
And you know what that means in an abominable movie like this one: Vikky is going to somehow be part of the hunt to find Maniac Ravi because of something personal that happened to Vikky. Vikky is a devoted and protective older brother to his sister Swathi (played by Sneha Madhuri), who is a college student and lives with Vikky. One night, Swathi is brutally raped and stabbed. She ends up in a hospital but does not survive her injuries.
The rest of the movie shows what happens when Vikky goes on a vigilante vendetta. One of the suspects in Swathi’s murder is a creep named Devaraju (played by Tanikella Bharani), a man about 15 years older than Swathi, who was sexually harassing Swathi in the days before she died, A law enforcement officer named Circle Inspector Prakash (played by Satyam Rajesh) gets involved in the murder case.
“Artiste” lurches along from one incoherent scene to the next, with unimpressive acting from the cast members and an obnoxiously loud sound mixing. Patel stands out for the wrong reasons because she over-acts to the point it almost looks like a parody. The last third of the movie is the worst because of prolonged and wretched scenes involving a vicious home invasion. Simply put: “Artiste” is a pathetic excuse to show exploitative and gruesome murders and ludicrous plot twists that insult viewers’ intelligence.
SJK Entertainment released in select U.S. cinemas and in India on March 21, 2025.