There are many things that Indian cinema does right, but the fantasy genre isn’t something we excel at. But V.I. Anand’s Bhairavakottai certainly could be a game changer and an inspiration for filmmakers trying to pull this genre off. The director takes inspiration from Garuda Purana and throws in his own twist to create a fictitious village where souls filled with rage and vengeance come back to this prison in their afterlife. Anand’s fictional world is as good as it can be, and the filmmaker deserves applause for materializing this idea on the big screen. Despite the dodgy VFX, Anand’s story is so powerful that you don’t really mind the poor visuals from time to time.
Spoilers Ahead
What happens in the movie?
A stuntman turned thief, Vasava, makes his dramatic escape after stealing a bag full of jewelry from a wedding. The bride calls the police to save the thief from her angry family members, but Vasava sneaks out right under everyone’s noses. Vasava’s sidekick John waits in a car as he dumps the bike, and both of them seem to be successful in evading the police. On the way, they find an unconscious girl by the road who looks like she’s been in an accident. They take her in to get help, but the police soon identify them at a checkpoint. Vasava drives deep into the woods, and he manages to lose the tail of the cops. Soon he sees a magical firefly and follows it, and he sees a corner of the jungle filled with majestic fireflies who illuminate green lights. John sees a path following the fireflies, and the friends drive into a mysterious village named Bhairavakona. A strange man warns them that there’s no escape once they enter the village, but they don’t pay attention and go anyway. The rest of the movie deals with the strange things they encounter at the village, along with Vasava’s personal issues.
Why was Bhumi carrying human remains?
Months before he ended up in Bhairavakona, Vasava was still working in films as a stunt double. Pretty randomly, one day Vasava comes across Bhumi, who hops in his auto when a couple of thieves run away with her bag. Vasava helps her to follow them, but he’s mostly driving and checking her out, and catching the thieves is the last thing on his mind. They finally manage to catch up with the thief who has the bag, but he runs away after he sees what’s inside the bag. Vasava checks the bag and finds human remains, and Bhumi awkwardly thanks him and leaves. A few days later, Vasava goes to meet his former boss, Shankar. Shankar is a notorious gang leader who persuades Vasava to do a job for him. He tells Vasava that there’s a girl sedated in the car trunk he needs to take care of for a night, and Vasava opens the trunk to see that it’s Bhumi.
After Bhumi wakes up, she tells Vasava that the human remains he saw in her bag were for a DNA test. Bhumi belongs to a utopian village of tribal people where nobody claims their personal property or belongings and coexists peacefully with their people. Vasava’s boss, Shankar, found out about the village and bought the land to register it in his name. Shankar forced the people of the village to vacate and burnt the village to start afresh. All the people who prospered in their native land turned into beggars and lowlifes in the city, and their lawyer can’t help them since Shukla bribed the government officials whose testimony is needed. Bhumi figured that only their predecessors could prove the land belonged to them, and the people dug up one of their ancestors to match the DNA to the people of the village. Shukla kidnapped Bhumi so that she would fail to do so, and now Vasava finds himself in trouble.
How do Vasava and John lose the bag of jewelry?
Vasava and John enter Bhairavakona, where they see strange people worshiping the deity of Bhairava. They manage to find an ayurvedic doctor to treat Geetha (the injured woman). Earlier in the movie, one of the constables who saw the scooty and discovered hen’s blood figured that the girl must be the famous conwoman Geetha. Dr. Narappa is a misogynist of the worst kind and refuses to treat a woman. Vasava forces him to treat her, and a phone call takes his attention soon. John is supposed to oversee the doctor and the girl, but a strange, weeping woman in the woods lures him deep into the woods. When John and Vasava come back, Geetha has already fled with the car and the bag of jewelry. She crashes into a weird man on a bicycle and decides not to stop to help him.
Soon a gang of bicycle riders follow Geetha, and she wakes up to Vasava, John, and Dr. Narappa. She tells them that the car is lost, and she has no recollection of how she got mugged. Dr. Narappa leads Vasava to find the gang, and Vasava follows one of them to an abandoned palace. In the palace, a dacoit named Rajappa is sitting with the jewels, claiming that he got these jewels made for his daughter Katyayini. Vasava asks for the bag from him, and Rajappa’s men surround him and John. Vasava gets hold of one of the men and threatens Rajappa, but the man slits his own throat when Rajappa tells him to. Rajappa tells Vasava that he can’t kill dead people, and the man who just died has been dead for 12 years. The whole gang of Rajappa are dead people, including himself. Vasava and John try to make an escape, and they find their car. Zombie-like ghosts follow them while Vasava drives as fast as he can, and just when it looks like they’re going to die, the sun’s rays save the day. All of the people slowly start to vanish into thin air. Vasava finds Dr. Narappa, who tells him that none of the people of this village are alive, not even him. Just when the sunlight is making the last of the ghosts disappear, one of the bicycle thieves takes the bag of jewels from the car and jumps into a portal.
What’s the origin of Bhairavakona?
Gutted over losing the bag, Vasava tries to find a way to get it back. John and Geetha are creeped out by what just happened, and they want to get out of the village. During their back and forth, they see a bizarre priest making his way to the temple. When they follow him, the priest reveals that he’s been waiting for them. He explains that a long time ago, a group of men followed the Garuda Purana to discover Bhairavakona, but they never returned. The King of that time sensed the danger associated with the place, and he ripped out the last four pages of the Garuda Purana to prevent people from discovering the village. The gates of Bhairavakona open during the “shukla paksham” in the months of November and December and close when the “Krishna paksham” begins. The people who lived a content life and died in peace never come to Bhairavakona, but those whose souls reek of rage, vengeance, and hatred end up here. Just like prisons on earth offer the prisoners a shot at redemption, Bhairavakona offers the tormented souls a chance to let go of their vengeance to earn reincarnation. The head of this village, Peddamma, is the only living human, along with the priest, and her magical wand is a weapon to control these souls. Peddamma offers the fear of Lord Shiva and the love of Goddess Parvati to the souls if they have a change of heart. The village is guarded by the demons of the dark and the eight directions. Those who try to escape the village are confined by a devilish bird and get tortured. The priest advises them to leave the village and make it out alive, but Vasava has something else on his mind.
How does Vasava try to reclaim the jewelry?
Vasava devises a plan to cheat the ghosts in order to get the bag of jewels back from them. He figures that Rajappa got these jewelry made for his daughter over 20 years ago, and if he could present someone as his daughter to him, they could get the jewelry back. The group goes back to the village Vasava stole it from and does research on Rajappa and his daughter. It turns out that the father of the bride who called the cops to save Vasava, used to be a cook under Rajappa. He got greedy when Rajappa got the jewelry made for his daughter and called the cops on him. When the cops raided Rajappa’s home, Rajappa caught him stealing. When Rajappa tried to take it back, he pushed him into a pot of searing gold, and Rajappa died on the spot. Vasava and the gang go back to Bhairavakona to utilize their plan, and Geetha takes the disguise of Rajappa’s daughter, Katyayini.
Does Vasava manage to fool Rajappa?
Vasava and John come back to Rajappa’s palace, but one of the ghosts informs them that he’s talking to his father. The duo discovers his father when they see Rajappa talking to Dr. Narappa. John is astonished to see Dr. Narappa younger than his son, but it’s understandable that he’s lived a shorter life than Rajappa. Rajappa finds them sneaking up on his private conversation, and his wrath rains on Vasava. His rage is quenched when Vasava tells him that he brought a gift for him, and Geetha, disguised as Katyayini, shows up. Rajappa instantly turns into an excited pup when he sees his daughter, but Dr. Narappa obviously sees through the charade. He had already met Geetha and knew all three of them to be con artists and thieves. But Geetha shows a picture of Katyayini and Rajappa to him, and Rajappa melts faster than a cup of ice cream. Rajappa is an emotional man, and he’d do anything for his daughter. He adores his long-lost daughter and even shows her magic tricks. When they are about to say goodbye, he gives the bag to Geetha and happily bids her goodbye. But John’s unironical dumbness proves to be unfortunate when he asks for an anklet Rajappa had in his pocket. Rajappa got the anklet made to cover the almond-sized birthmark Katyayini had on her ankle, and when he goes ahead to put it on her, he notices there’s no birthmark. Vasava takes Geetha and flees with the jeep, with Rajappa’s men chasing them. They end up in the center of the village, where they see Peddamma standing to stop their little escapade. Peddamma tells Vasava that nobody ends up in Bhairavakona without a reason, and he’s summoned because his lover awaits him. Bhumi comes out of a portal and asks Vasava why he killed her.
Why did Vasava kill Bhumi?
Bhumi hates Vasava, as it was he who killed her. Vasava, too, agrees that he killed her with his own two hands. Bhumi leaves Vasava at Rajappa’s mercy, who lets his men inflict hell on him. But John tells Bhumi that everything Vasava is doing is for her and the people of her village, including the jewelry theft. Bhumi asks Peddamma if Vasava is innocent, and Peddamma offers to let her see the truth for herself. A beam of light shines on Peddamma’s hands, and she explains that the four missing pages of the Garuda Purana will reveal the truth. She advises Bhumi to let go of the hatred she has for Vasava, and accept he’s not the Ravana she thinks. Bhumi agrees to see the truth, and a flashback takes us to the day she was killed.
Bhumi evaded Vasava’s captivity and escaped from where he kept her. But on her way back, Shankar and his men caught her. She managed to fight her way out when she injected Shankar with scorpion’s poison, but his men were bigger in number. Vasava soon caught up with them and started to take the men down. While fighting with them, Vasava accidentally slit Bhumi’s throat, thinking she was one of Shankar’s men. Killing Bhumi also killed Vasava to the core, and he swore to get her people back to their native land. After seeing what actually happened, Bhumi forgives Vasava. Vasava is half dead by now, but the priest was performing a ritual with Peddamma’s cane, and the cane flies like mjolnir to find Vasava.
Does Vasava make it out of Bhairavakona alive?
After getting his hands on the magical cane, Vasava gets right back up and fights back. He manages to overpower Rajappa and his men in an instant, and he asks Rajappa to let go of his meaningless pursuit of revenge. Rajappa was hellbent on taking revenge from the man who killed him, but Vasava reveals that the same man adopted Katyayini after his death. While investigating the family’s history, Vasava and Geetha found out that the bride was none other than Katyayini herself. Rajappa still thinks Vasava is lying and making this up, but Bhumi vouches for Vasava. Rajappa’s heart finally frees itself from the shackles of revenge, and Bhumi and Vasava find each other again. Dr. Narappa reminds them that the sun is about to rise, and soon Rajappa and Bhumi will be gone forever, since both of their hearts have become content. Rajappa sees his daughter on a mobile phone, and Bhumi and Vasava spend some moments of their own before the sunlight takes all of Bhairavakona’s residents with it. Vasava makes sure Bhumi’s people get back to their homes as he earns his redemption through it.
A movie that pretty much takes you on a journey to remember, Bhairavakottai is one of the must watch movies streaming on Amazon Prime now. The best thing about the film is that it dares to commit to the vision of the filmmaker. I personally didn’t know any of the actors, but all of them are wonderful in their respective roles. The soundtrack is surprisingly good, and it manages to break the language barrier for the Pan India audience. All in all, sit with a big bucket of popcorn and let yourself be immersed in V.I. Anand’s fantastical world.
