Crime thriller with a horror twist

As a director G Ashok does not have a long list of films, having begun his directorial career about seven years ago. Known more for his Nani-starrer ‘ Pilla Zamindar’ which struck a chord with the audience, Ashok’s last outing with Anjali – Chitrangada-  a horror genre film released in March last year failed to find favour. His latest film – Bhaagamathie- too remains in the same zone that his last movie based itself in- a spooky and supernatural ambience- yet packs in slices of historical flashes.

Post- Baahubali, the box-office appeal of Anushka Shetty is clearly top notch. Ashok himself seems to have taken a calculated risk by waiting for her  go ahead, over the years that the magnum opus was being put to final shape in two parts. 

Interspersing modern day political wheeling dealing with a haunted bungalow environment, Ashok gives full scope to Anushka to dominate the proceedings, which she does comfortably. Showing her initially as a nattily dressed,  promising IAS officer  and later as a convict wearing jail uniform as she is jailed for a murder case, the director operates at two levels – one which seeks to unravel the crime and fix the offender for the act committed.

Spooky whooshes and full-throated screams begin right from the first half an hour of the 142-minute film, when the action stays grounded in the police investigation centre, which is actually an abandoned Nizam-type bungalow. 

The CBI is unleashed on the bureaucrat ( the no-nonsense officer role, a continuation of the one Asha Sarath played in ‘Drushyam’) who has killed a social activist and she is accused of shielding a politician, who is otherwise a do-gooder (Jayaram with a measured performance), even announcing political renunciation to serve the public.

Having decided to continue with the same combo of horror and crime, the director brings in the interval break at a crucial juncture and manages to sustain the momentum in the second half, by and large. 

However, regular watchers of commercial cinema would have been able to guess the final phase of the film, when the suspense is revealed and the wolves in sheep’s clothing get exposed one after the other. This is the predictable part of the movie, which robs its novelty factor to a major extent.

However, with a long Republic Day weekend and Anushka’s convincing solo heroine portrayal, the film manages to hold audience interest rather well, which could work in its favour.