Yashoda

In this 2022 Telugu film directed by the pair Hari and Harish, Samantha Ruth Prabhu plays a woman who accepts a surrogacy offer to raise money for her sister. She moves into a luxurious and tightly controlled facility housing pregnant surrogates, and soon notices that something in its operation is wrong. The film sits between thriller and science fiction. Its central idea is how the beauty and youth industry turns the female body into raw material; the script states this outright and does not look for subtlety. Switching genre in the second half and moving into action solves its pacing problem while weakening its coherence. Samantha's performance is the strongest element. It marked a move into physical action for an actor better known for romance and family films, and most of the audience interest came from there. Who it's for: viewers who enjoy Indian thrillers that mix genres. Who it's not for: viewers who want science-fiction elements built convincingly; the scientific explanations here exist to move the story, not to persuade.