'Ooru Peru Bhairavakona' Movie Review
Cast: Sundeep Kishan, Varsha Bollamma, Kavya Thapar, Vadivukkarasu, Ravi Shankar, Harsha Chemudu, Jayaprakash, Mime Gopi and others.
Music: Sekhar Chandra
Cinematography: Raj Thota
Dialogues: Bhanu - Nandu
Producer: Rajesh Danda
Writer - Director: VI Anand
Young and talented hero Sundeep Kishan has been waiting for a hit since a long time. He teamed up with his 'Tiger' director VI Anand and made an intriguing film titled 'Ooru Peru Bhairavakona'. The trailer and songs generated a positive buzz on the movie and let us see if the movie matched the expectations or not.
Story:
Basava (Sundeep Kishan) is a fighter in the movies. He enters a house for robbery and steals away the jewellery of the bride. They are worth four crores. While he is escaping with his friend, he meets Geetha (Kavya Thapar) who steals from people on the highway by trapping them through fake accidents. All three of them enter a village named Bhairavakona. After going there, they face some strange situations. Their car and stolen jewellery go missing and all their efforts in finding them prove to be unsuccessful. Basava finds out extraordinary facts about this village. What is the story of Bhairavakona? Why is Basava into stealing? What is his connection to this village? All these questions will be answered on the big screens.
Analysis:
There are some films which might impress you if they are watched with an open mind. But they look a different way when there are expectations on it. A crazy combination, the director's image, the hype given by the team and the promotional content raised the expectations on the movie heavily. If all these are in your mind while sitting in theatres, people expect something of high standard. Hyping up the audience and raising their expectations would help in getting the audience into the theatres on the first day but it works against the film if the content doesn't match it. This is the problem with 'Ooru Peru Bhairavakona'. If we watch the film without knowing a lot about it, there are a few elements that will thrill you and some scenes will make you laugh. You will be satisfied to an extent as well. But the combination of 'Tiger' getting together, VI Anand returning to the fantasy genre after 'Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada', long production, significance to VFX and the trailer giving some interesting hints regarding the movie along with the makers showing their confidence by holding premieres two days before the release have all raised the expectations heavily. The viewers who enter the theatres keeping all these in mind will not get that 'wow' factor in 'Ooru Peru Bhairavakona'.
VI Anand followed the 'Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada' format once again. His story had a lot of layers and there are many turns in it as well. But he failed to present them in a gripping fashion and give us the 'wow' factor as mentioned before. The 'high' we experienced after watching the trailer goes missing in the movie. The world created around a fictional 'Bhairavakona' village looks artificial. Though it is true that fantasy films lack logic, what we see onscreen should be convincing enough. But we don't get that feeling while watching 'Ooru Peru Bhairavakona'. The mystery around Bhairavakona village looks thrilling but the heavy artificialness turns out to be a minus. The biggest plus point of this movie is the comedy. Vennela Kishore's character has been designed very well. Even Viva Harsha did a fantastic job as well. After revealing the other side of Kishore's character, the director brought out a lot of fun from him. The episode of the hero and his gang entering the fort with a plan of deceiving the demons stands out in the entire movie.
Prior to that, the interval episode where the twist gets revealed works out amazingly too. Despite the tacky VFX due to budget constraints, those episodes thrill the viewers. You get a feeling that the makers are onto something with the Garuda Puranam and the missing four pages but it doesn't excite you after a point. The scope of the story is quite small. Varsha Bollamma's character is key to the story but the emotion related to the people in the village does not work out. The love story between the hero and heroine too looks ordinary. There is no feel and emotion which turns out to be a major disadvantage. Climax is decent but what we see on the screen is nowhere near what we expected. A few thrills and a few good laughs are what you get from the movie. Apart from that, 'Ooru Peru Bhairavakona' doesn't impress you that much.
Performances:
Sundeep Kishan is apt for the role of Basavalingam. His acting is natural and he fits the bill perfectly. He looks like a character in the film rather than a hero. There are not many scenes that showcase his brilliance as an actor but he excelled in the emotional scenes. There is nothing extraordinary in his role. Varsha Bollamma was brilliant in a strong role. She is key to the story and her acting is on point. Kavya Thapar gave a glamour feast. This is the most attractive she looked in a Telugu film till date. But her character is quite artificial. Ravishankar makes an impact within a limited number of scenes. Vennela Kishore did a paisa vasool character. He tickles your funny bones in the movie and Harsha Chemudu did a good job as well. Vadivukkarasu's appearance is good but her role lacked substance. It was overly built up at the beginning. The rest of the actors are fine.
Technicians:
'Ooru Peru Bhairavakona' is superior in terms of technical quality. Sekhar Chandra's songs are amazing. Tracks like 'Nijamene Chebutunna' and 'Humma Humma' are good to watch on the screen as well. His background score is equally impactful. Raj Thota's cinematography is okay. Considering the budget, the VFX output is fine but it doesn't match the current standards. VI Anand's hard work can be seen on the screen. His script is quite solid but it fails to get translated on the screen. He fails to shock and stun the viewers like 'Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada'. This narration was not gripping enough and he scored average marks as a director.
Verdict: 'Ooru Peru Bhairavakona' - Few Thrills & Few Laughs!
Rating: 2.5/5