Last updated: 21 April 2023

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Film: Virupaksha (Telugu), meaning ‘the one who sees everything’

Directed by: Karthik Dandu

Cast: Sai Dharam Tej, Samyuktha, Rajeev Kanakala, Sunil, Brahmaji, Ajay, Jhansi

Highs: Story (Sukumar), direction (Karthik Dandu), performances of Sai Dharam Tej and Samyuktha, Ajaneesh Loknath’s background score, Shamdat Sainudeen’s cinematography, engrossing and spine-chilling first-half, interesting plot twists

Lows: Second-half is too stretched (many investigation scenes could have been trimmed), chaotic climax, mediocre VFX

Cinemania rating: ★★★☆☆

Plot: Set in the backdrop of a small landlocked village called Rudravanam in the 1990s, Virupaksha follows city-bred Surya (Sai Dharam Tej) who visits Rudravanam with his mother to participate in the annual fair and ends up falling in love with Nandini (Samyuktha), the daughter of the village’s Sarpanch (Rajeev Kanakala). At the same time, many mysterious deaths occur in the village causing widespread panic and interrupting the fair. As the region is forced into a lockdown and people live in fear, Surya takes matters into his own hands to determine what is causing these deaths and how to save the residents of Rudravanam.

Performances: Sai Dharam Tej does justice to his role as Surya. Samyuktha is impressive and gets ample scope to showcase her acting skills in a strong role. The supporting cast – Jhansi, Rajeev Kanakala, Sunil, Brahmaji and Ajay – deliver good performances.

Technical departments: The sound effects and background music by B. Ajaneesh Loknath is one of the highlights of Virupaksha. The sound design brilliantly enhances several key scenes in the film, elevates thrilling moments and also sends a chill down the spine during the jump-scare scenes. Cinematography by Shamdat Sainudeen is top notch. Navin Nooli’s editing is good in the first half but the second half needed a lot of trimming as a number of scenes (search scenes, fight scene, etc) are too stretched. The VFX looks amateurish in the climax scene.

Screenplay and direction: The first-half of Virupaksha is mostly gripping and fast-paced with plenty of genuinely-scary horror elements (some scenes are not for the faint-hearted) except for the romantic track between Surya and Nandini, which gets distracting at times and could have been written better. The pre-interval scene is fantastic (performances, direction, cinematography and background music reach a peak in this particular scene) and is one of the best moments in the film.

The second-half starts well but then the screenplay gets bumpy as Sai Dharam Tej’s Surya investigates the mysterious deaths by going to several places – this is where many scenes are stretched forever testing your patience. The plot twists and flashback scenes are good, however the climax scene is too long, messy and chaotic.

In summary, Virupaksha deserves to be watched for its fresh and engaging story, performances, cinematography and sound effects. Some clever writing and slick editing in the last 45 minutes along with a better climax could have made the film a classic horror-thriller.

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