Fantasy Romance Film ‘Ooru Peru Bhairavakona’ Fails to Cast a Spell on Audience

A bag full of stolen jewellery. A man on the run. People displaced from a village seeking justice. In another village, its inhabitants hold onto grudges from the past. A love story that has the potential to solve several issues. The Telugu film ‘Ooru Peru Bhairavakona’, written and directed by Vi Anand, weaves all these threads together and adds elements of fantasy and magical realism to this mix.

One night, in the middle of nowhere, when the film’s protagonist Basu or Basavalingam, accompanied by his friend John, walks through a canopy of glowing fireflies, it hints at something magical on the other side. It’s a facade. What lies beyond makes the characters think about life, death, the afterlife and the need to heal wounds from the past.

Ooru Peru… begins like any other film. Basavalingam and his friend John are among the hundreds of behind-the-scenes warriors of the film industry, working in the stunt department. When he is not a stunt double for a film hero on the sets, Basavalingam is cornered into doing odd jobs, including keeping an eye on a kidnapped woman!

One night, when he and John are on the run with a bag of jewellery, they cross paths with con woman Geetha. Escaping the cops, they drive into the jungles and stumble upon a village named Bhairavakona. The trio try to make sense of the village and its mystic rituals and discover, to their horror, that nothing is what it seems.

Some of Vi Anand’s earlier films such as ‘Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada’, ‘Okka Kshanam’, and ‘Disco Raja’ happen in fantastical, mysterious settings. In ‘Ooru Peru…’, he has a story that can make us think: what if souls get a chance to heal? What if the soul learns that a loved one is being taken care of or learns that someone else is soldiering on to complete their unfulfilled mission?

While the film wants us to spare a thought for such possibilities, it does not want us to take the narrative too seriously either. So the film is peppered with humor, some of which appears forcefit and dilutes the narrative. A few fun lines hit the mark and pep up the proceedings at least momentarily, like the exchanges between Harsha and Vennela Kishore. After a crucial reveal at the midway mark, which changes the way we look at several characters in the story, when one character says ‘show some respect to the dead people’, it generates laughter.

Several fiery-looking characters inhabit Bhairavakona. As the village’s secrets are revealed, these characters begin to look less eerie. Even the jump scares don’t bring in the fear factor. The crux of the story is the romance between Basavalingam and Bhoomi that drives this narrative. However, it doesn’t have the emotional gravitas despite the actors putting their earnest foot forward. Ideally, we should be rooting for Basavalingam who ventures into the danger zone, risking his limb and life. But the patchy narrative keeps us at arm’s length.