Subrahmanyapuram – Movie Review

What’s it about!

Karthik (Sumanth) who works in archeology department in Hyderabad is interested in temples and their history but doesn’t believe in god. One day, he goes to a village named Subramanyapuram to research about in the village’s centuries-old temple. People in the village die in mysterious circumstances. When a peacock appears in front of them, they attempt suicide. The villagers believe its curse of the reigning deity as they performed abhishekam much against the temple’s ritual. The village landlord’s daughter (Eesha), who is in love with Karthik, invites him to their village and he decides to solve the mystery behind these suicides.

Analysis

The trailer of ‘Subramanyapuram’ itself gave the impression that it is retelling the same story of Chandoo Mondeti directed Nikhil starrer ‘Karthikeya’. Fifteen minutes into the film, we get the confirmation that the director is narrating the familiar story in similar template of ‘Karthikeya’. The arc of the story, the twist and the climax are exactly the same.

What has made new director Santosh Jagarlapudi to retell it?

What is the major twist in the film? Anyone can easily guess.

Who is the villain of the movie? The predictability.

At the very start of ‘Subrahmanyapuram’, a villager commits suicide. 12 or 15 more suicide deaths happen just before the pre-climax. In between, nothing much happens, except these deaths occurring in loop. The hero is quite passive guy in the entire first half, when he gets into some “action”, movie comes to end. To be fair, the film holds interest at some places post-interval despite the predictability.

‘Subrahmanyapuram’ has Sumanth playing an atheist, he is just okay in this role. Eesha Rebba as girl-next-door is good. Suresh as village landlord Varma does neat job. Comedians Bhadram and Josh Ravi come up with outdated lines.

Technical and production values are decent. New director has shown his mark in second half of the movie but the film shows his limited narrative skills.

Bottom-line: ‘Subrahmanyapuram’ is predictable thriller and is exact copy of ‘Karthikeya’. Though it has some moments, it is mostly repeats the same scenes again and again.