All eyes on Anushka as the actress makes her reentry in a role that she has been familiar with. Her character in the super hit horror movie Arundhati earner her rave reviews, now with Bhaagamathie she is back in business. Anushka towers the movie with her immense screen presence, it’s a cake walk for the talented actress as she fits into the dual role of an IAS officer and the terrorizing Bhaagamathie. Made as a bilingual the movie is directed by Ashok who takes heavy inspiration from various horror movies.
Bhaagamathie is not the usual horror story you will see, that much is certainly true. A promising politician (Jayaram) has his task etched out to do good to his people, but that has started to irk the likes of opposite parties as they fear he might become the next CM and decide to frape him. As conspiracy brews, they bring in a CBI officer (Asha Sarath) to interrogate Sanchana (Anushka) who is now a criminal but served as a personal secretary to Jayaram. Without wasting much time the director takes the story into the haunted ruins of Bhaagamathie palace where Anushka is interrogated. Once the plot gets into the haunted palace, the stereotyped version of horror movies starts to unfold. The skeptical watchman, a lunatic, couple of sidekicks who scare easy, the chair that creaks automatically and heavy VFX all start to play out.
The interrogation scenes are made clumsily, the questioning and the situation unfolds not very convincingly. While the mornings are for interrogation, flashback into Anushka’s past its horror time during the night as the old terrorizing queen Bhaagamathie takes over. The first half is a complete letdown without much to offer, the much hyped horror sequences are not so scary, however the background score deserves a special mention. Usually a horror scene works well when it has good scene setting, brilliant camera work and a thumping background score. Bhaagamathie sadly does not have the first two and is saved to an extent by the BGM. The film lives through its second half when the director springs an unexpected twist, the events unfold very naturally arousing your interest. Somehow Ashok fails to capitalize on the interest and once the twist gets into the plot, story again heads into a formality zone. What happens to Anushka after the interrogation, does she became the horror queen Bhaagamathie or is she deceived by the CBI folks forms the rest of the plot.
Anushka’s performance is certainly the key, the actress has been receiving a lot of flak for not being able to reduce her weight since Inji Iddupazhagi. Bhaagamathie proves everyone wrong and announces the actress comeback on a good scale. The cast is a complete mix-up, its quite obvious on what was going on the producers mind; in an attempt to cater Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam audience - Jayaram, Asha Sarath, Unni Mukund, Thalaivasal Vijay, Murali Sharma and Vidyullekha Raman are in the cast which somehow reduces the authenticity of sticking to one language. Without a strong first half, the director has to thrive more on the second half’s twist, but that comes rather too late. The film is majorly shot indoors especially around the haunted house, the art work is not too great either.
Bhaagamathie’ s stereotyped first half spoils the twist in the second that comes very late to save the movie. Watch it for Thaman’s riveting BGM and Anushka’s power packed performance.
