Ooru Peru Bhairavakona review: Sundeep Kishan’s fantasy film let down by lazy writing

Ooru Peru Bhairavakona (OPB), a fantasy-comedy, is the newest addition to actor Sundeep Kishan’s on-screen experiments with different roles and genres. It tells the story of three thieves who get trapped in the mystical Bhairavakona village haunted by ghosts. Directed by Vi Anand, the film also stars Varsha Bollamma, Kavya Thapar, and Viva Harsha among others. 

The plot is set in motion when Basava (Sundeep Kishan) and his half-witted friend John (Viva Harsha) commit a burglary, extorting nearly 60 tolas of gold. As the police are chase them, they take refuge in Bhairavakona, a village that once entered cannot be exited alive. While the premise sounds interesting on paper, it is the execution that fails miserably. The film embarrassingly resembles a poorly executed skit. Vi Anand who also wrote the film has attempted a fusion of horror, fantasy, and comedy, but none of them work. 

OPB is narrated from the perspective of Basava, a stunt performer–turned thief. 

Bhoomi (Varsha Bollamma), an Adivasi woman, is fighting for the rights of her community to retrieve their land from the ‘bad guys’. We are referring to them as ‘bad guys’ because that’s what has been written about them. We do not know exactly who they are and why they do what they do. They just do ‘bad things’ because they are ‘evil’. 

This is the fundamental problem with OPB. The story is lazily written without delving deeper into any of the characters.

‘Bad guys’ evict an entire tribal village called Pacha Konda (green village, a metaphor for happiness). All we have to know is that the residents of this village are ‘nice’ and ‘happy’ because the name of the village refers to happiness and there is a montage of them ‘smiling’ and interacting with each other. Upon being evicted, these residents have no proof of their claim to this land because they do not believe in the concept of “owning land or nature”. 

Vi Anand does give a lot of details about the village in terms of what they do to survive, the presence of electricity, whether or not children go to schools or have birth certificates, and so on, since questions about identity documents like electricity bills or ration cards may come up. Honestly, Pacha Konda is more mystical than the titular Bhairavakona. 

Vi Anand gets the opportunity to tell three stories– the story of Basava, the story of Bhoomi, and the story of Bhairavakona, the village. But it is quite a feat that despite a runtime of 2 hours 20 minutes, the film does not invest in a single character (Bhairavakona itself is a character).  

OPB is one of the most contrived films I have seen in recent times. There are a few characters who appear in the film and almost everyone is connected with each other. 

But the poor writing makes the performances of the actors shallow. 

Sundeep Kishan delivers some stock expressions to the scenes which make you wince. Varsha Bollamma tries, but in vain. Kavya Thapar is sidelined for the most part, but when she gets the opportunity to perform she visibly struggles. 

Vennela Kishore is the only respite in OPB and his comic timing once again proves what a brilliant actor he is. But even that is too little and too late.

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.