Bhairava Geetha review: A violent flick with insights

Film: Bhairava Geetha

Kannada (A)

Director: Siddhartha Thatholu

Cast: Dhananjaya, Irra Mor, Raja Balwadi

Rating: 3/5

Bhairava Geetha offers most elements that make for a splendid cinematic experience. It has its share of bloodshed, violence, aggression and passion. There are wonderful intimate sequences and performances, and there are gruesome and cold-blooded murders. The background score and lyrics, too, work harmoniously with the theme of the film.

Despite all this, Bhairava Geetha leaves the audience wanting for more, especially from its story-line. The film fails to offer a sense of completion.

The movie, by 23-year-old debutant director Siddhartha Thatholu, deals with the fundamental battle between feudal-minded oppressors and the downtrodden. It talks of caste and class systems.

At the heart of this battle for justice lies a sub-plot of a love story between Bhairava (Dhananjaya), who belongs to the oppressed section, and Geetha (Irra Mor), who is from the oppressor's family.

Bhairava, the henchman of a village chieftain (Raja Balwadi), is forced into circumstances that lead him to take on the chieftain. Incidentally it is Geetha, the chieftain's educated daughter brought up in an urban setting, who pushes Bhairava into this situation. She enlightens him about the caste and class system and supports him in successfully taking the battle to its logical end.

Compared to the tame first half, the second half is spine-chilling. Many scenes are replete with violence, the characters' voices seething with rage. The beautiful hilly setting for the story is very apt.

Playing a submissive hurt man — who is more dangerous than a violent angry man — Dhananjaya delivers his career-best performance. In many scenes, his eyes convey more than his dialogues. Newcomer Irra Morr delivers a strong performance in the intimate scenes. Equally splendid is Balwadi.

Jagadeesh Cheekati's cinematography and Anwar Ali's editing deserve special mention.

Screenplay by Ram Gopal Verma and Ram Vamsi Krishna scores high, while dialogues by Krishna are insightful and catchy. Ravi Shankar's music is above average, but noisy tunes often disturb rhythm of the movie.

Throughout the film, the gaps between lip movement and sound track are glaring. Thatholu and Ali have failed to sync the two elements properly for this Telugu-Kannada bilingual flick.