Bhadram Movie Review

Behind the Movie Bhadram: After ‘Pizza’ and ‘Pizza 2,’ Tamil films with suspense and thrilling content developed decent market even in Telugu. ‘Bhadram’ arrived in Telugu on the same note as Tamil version ‘Thegidi’ did a superb business there. Let us see, how far it fits the bill in Telugu?

In the Movie Bhadram: Story begins with introduction to Venu (Ashok Selvan) completed his criminology course joins Radical Detective Agency. Standard at basics with shadowing and surveillance without getting in contact with the subjects, Venu impresses his bosses Sailesh and Poorna Chandra by satisfactorily closing the first three assignment files. When the case comes with fourth one of Madhu Sri (Janani Iyer), he misses the track and falls in love with the subject. In the process, Venu comes across mysterious deaths of his last three subjects and Madhu is the next in line. How is Radical Detective Agency involved in fraud and how Venu’s mentor runs the show from behind? Did Venu and Police Officer Raghuram (Jayaprakash) crack the entire gamut? All these form the gripping second half.

Values of the Movie Bhadram: Story plotted around a detective agency itself sounds good and interesting. Director P Ramesh should be appreciated on the first hand for presenting such a story with a very neat screenplay. Unlike the suspense thrillers which run at racing speed, ‘Bhadram’ is a slow starter and picks up just before pre interval. Then there are good twists and turns spiraling towards a well dealt climax. Cinematography of Dinesh Krishnan is fitting while Leo John Paul’s editing needed a little sharp edge in first half. Most impressive and thrilling part of the film is Nivas Prasanna’s eloquent BGM. The way thrilling spirit in the film is elevated with BGM is just remarkable. That’s the value BGM adds to these kinds of concepts. Dialogues were pretty normal while production values of Shreyas Media and Uma Associates are imposing.

Performance wise, there was no big necessity for characters to show their prowess. Ashok Selvan was subtle throughout as a detective with good observation. Janani Iyer was simple looking like a girl next door. Of the rest, Jayaprakash comes late in second half did a good job. The artist who has done Ashok’s friend as Chef sprinkled some humor here and there. Detective agency guys were also ok. Rest others do not need a big mention.

Out of the Movie Bhadram: Mind game concepts with intelligent bends should not offer any jerks for the audience. Focus of director and attention of viewers should move on suspiciously which needs a tight narration. P Ramesh has done the minute of detailing perfectly. May be it’s the fault in dubbing where some logics are spelt wrongly. Romance shown in the first half between lead pair was a little boring and do not need much mention in totality. With pre interval scenes, director successfully makes audience fevicol to their seats. Movies of this genre do not need rich presentation; so much of the execution went on offbeat lines. 

However, the dramatized climax with the old teacher offering a non sense lecture on society and mindset of people is a misfit for the whole concept. For clever audience who already expected the twist, this is a misstep from director. Anyways, he covers the loophole with a well justified suspense element left unfilled before end titles roll on.

Commercially, we cannot see ‘Bhadram’ to go well with lower class centers as the entertainment (comedy) quotient is absolutely zero. For those clever and calculating audiences, there is something imaginative and entertaining stuff for you.