Mukhachitram

Mukhachitram 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.

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". A critic from 123telugu wrote that "On the whole, Mukhachitram has a relevant topic that works just in parts". 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." 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."

Home media
The streaming rights of the film were acquired by Aha where the film premiered on 3 February 2023.