★★½☆☆ 2.5/5 — PARTLY WORKS.
Anand Deverakonda and Vaishnavi Chaitanya make the central relationship feel believable, but a stretched screenplay, repeated conversations and an unresolved ending prevent the film from becoming a fully satisfying romantic drama.
Positives
- Anand Deverakonda's natural, restrained performance
- Strong chemistry between Anand and Vaishnavi Chaitanya
- Honest treatment of young relationships and life abroad
- Hesham Abdul Wahab's music and background score
Negatives
- Slow and repetitive screenplay
- Several conversations run longer than necessary
- Limited development beyond the central relationship
- Deliberately incomplete climax
Epic - First Semester works best when it stays close to its two lead characters. Writer-director Aditya Haasan builds the film around Aditya, a middle-class youngster who wants to become a filmmaker but travels to London for higher studies under family pressure. There he meets Kadali, an independent young woman whose outlook on relationships is very different from his own.
Their growing connection gives the film its most convincing moments. The writing is candid about attraction, intimacy, financial pressure, family expectations and the emotional uncertainty that can follow young Indians living away from home. The problem is that the film keeps returning to similar conversations without enough narrative movement.
At roughly 150 minutes, that repetition becomes difficult to ignore. The story gains emotional force closer to the pre-climax, but the payoff is limited by an ending designed to continue the story in Epic Final Semester rather than resolve the conflicts established here.
Performances, Writing and Technical Work
Anand Deverakonda is comfortably suited to Aditya. His awkwardness, innocence and confusion come across naturally, particularly when the character is caught between his personal ambitions, his parents' expectations and his changing feelings for Kadali. The performance avoids unnecessary dramatic flourishes and gives the film a believable centre.
Vaishnavi Chaitanya matches him well as Kadali. She brings confidence and directness to the character, while her chemistry with Anand gives even ordinary conversations some warmth. Their lighter exchanges and later emotional scenes are among the film's better portions. The supporting characters have considerably less room to register, leaving most of the dramatic responsibility with the lead pair.
Aditya Haasan's core idea has potential because it approaches a contemporary relationship without turning every disagreement into a conventional romantic-film conflict. Some discussions about intimacy, responsibility, marriage and the pressures faced by young adults feel unusually frank for a mainstream Telugu romance. The dialogue also produces several recognisable observations about middle-class families and life overseas.
The same conversational approach becomes the film's biggest weakness. Scenes frequently circle an emotional point after it has already been established. The relationship progresses, stalls and restarts without enough external conflict or character development to sustain a feature-length narrative. Kadali begins as a strongly defined personality, but parts of her later emotional progression need more convincing groundwork.
Hesham Abdul Wahab's music provides dependable support, with the background score helping several quieter emotional passages. Azeem Mohammad's cinematography gives the London portions a warm look, though the film spends long stretches in limited interiors. Navin Nooli's editing cannot fully overcome the writing's repetition, and a tighter middle section would have made the emotional turns more effective.
Epic - First Semester is most likely to work for younger viewers interested in relationship dramas, audiences familiar with the pressures of studying abroad, and fans of Anand Deverakonda and Vaishnavi Chaitanya. Viewers comfortable with dialogue-heavy, deliberately paced films may respond to its intimate moments. Those expecting a brisk romance or a complete emotional resolution could find the theatrical experience demanding, and may prefer to wait until the film reaches streaming.
Verdict
Epic - First Semester has a sincere emotional core, a well-cast lead pair and music that supports its quieter mood. Anand Deverakonda and Vaishnavi Chaitanya give the film enough authenticity to keep several individual scenes engaging, while Aditya Haasan brings a candid perspective to relationships, family expectations and young adulthood.
What holds it back is the lack of narrative momentum. Repetitive conversations, an overextended middle portion and a finale that functions mainly as a bridge to the next chapter make the film feel less complete than it should. For fans of the lead pair and patient relationship-drama viewers, it is a reasonable one-time watch. For everyone else, it is not an essential theatrical recommendation.