‘Agadha’ movie review: Kamakshi Bhaskarla shines, but style outruns substance 

Barely a week after Korean Kanakaraju, a no-brainer milking the viewer’s endless appetite for horror comedies, Telugu cinema’s tryst with ghosts, evil spirits and tantric practices continues with Agadha, set to a different metre. It is a primitive yet visually arresting good-versus-evil supernatural thriller that takes itself quite seriously.

Agadha arrives with an underdog advantage. One does not expect much, going by director MS Raju’s modest track record. In this film, he has banked on a young team to deliver the goods. On the surface, it has the staple ingredients of a rustic horror tale, with occult rituals, hymns, long-bearded sages and even older belief systems, but it is staged with flair.

Mahadevi (Kamakshi Bhaskarla) is a yogini, a glorified exorcist who returns to her ancestral home when an evil spirit torments her family. A series of creepy events in the household follows the death of a pregnant woman. The misfortune is traced back to an adventure trip to Chhattisgarh’s Bastar, where three friends enter a haunted cave and encounter a religious cult.

A bizarre early sequence has Mahadevi claiming that a dead woman continues to be a restless soul because her grandson has kept her dentures. That far-fetched lore, coupled with Mahadevi’s backstory of a carefree girl suddenly entrusted with a divine purpose and a shaky family dynamic, consumes considerable screen time and stalls the early momentum.

Every second sequence, aided by the music, visuals and locales, teases viewers with the hope of delivering something more than the obvious. While the technical crew appears ready to push the bar despite the limitations, and Kamakshi is at home shouldering the proceedings, the writing does not complement their efforts. It remains intriguing in atmosphere, yet leaves me craving more.

Post-intermission, style is backed by substance with greater consistency. Agadha’s (the evil force) crooked tactics to gain control over the universe are laid bare in arresting detail. Agadha and Mahadevi throw nasty challenges at one another frequently, and their tussle for supremacy is engrossing, something Rakesh Venkatapuram’s score uplifts to good effect. While the ending is anyone’s guess, its masala-laden treatment is fun to watch.

For all the agency it claims to give women, and the abundant screen time they are provided, Agadha’s female characters are either saints or victims of evil spirits. In its aim to be a layered good-versus-evil story, many characters are reduced to binaries. What about Mahadevi, the woman, beyond her role as a divine messenger? What makes Agadha so bitter? The writing fails to dig deep.

Moreover, the visual aesthetic heavily borrows from the atmosphere of the 2018 Hindi film Tumbbad, focusing on deity worship, ancient sorcery and lush green landscapes to generate an air of dread. This emphasis on visual appeal has its repercussions, mainly in its inability to generate genuine chills and maintain a strong narrative grip. The repeated use of crows as a metaphor for doom is tiresome. Yet the impressive shot composition, precise framing (cinematography by Nani Chamidisetty) and art direction (by Rajeev Nair) remain among its highlights.

Despite the unidimensional writing and the boundaries around Mahadevi’s character, Kamakshi Bhaskarla displays enough confidence in her portrayal. Shravan Reddy has the right build and body language to be a menacing baddie, but there is only so much scope the film offers him. Ulka Gupta is good while she lasts. Jovika is strictly okay in her debut, whilst her on- and off-screen mother, Vanitha Vijayakumar, lacks a meaty part. Shiju’s unusual casting in a sage-like avatar nearly pays off.

The impressive craft in Agadha is undeniable, but does that make it a genuinely satisfying, value-for-money horror film? Not quite.