Cast: Dhanunjaya, Ira Mor, Balraj, Vijay, others
Director: Siddhartha Thatholu
For a change Ram Gopal Varma decided to play producer to Bhairava Geetha, directed by the young Siddhartha Thatholu. Most of the actors are from Karnataka and the director is a Telugu from Godavari district. The release of Bhairava Geetha was postponed several times.
The film is set in the Rayalaseema of the 1990s. Subba Reddy (Balraj), a landlord, arranges the marriage of daughter Geetha (Ira Mor) with Katta Reddy, the son of another landlord. Geetha doesn’t like him and prefers her father’s henchman Bhairava (Dhanunjaya). Bhairava doesn’t realise Geetha loves him, till Subba Reddy tries to kill him, setting the stage for further proceedings.
Director Siddhartha Thatholu presents the factionists of Rayalaseema and their suppression of socially backward castes in a more natural way, but the story is dated and his narration is more matter of fact than emotive.
The film starts on a promising note with Ram Gopal Varma’s voice-over, but fails to pack a punch. There is a smattering of interesting scenes but the director is unable to maintain the narration in an interesting manner.
The film has shades of RX 100, directed by another of RGV’s assistants. The female lead in RX 100 falls in love with her father’s henchman but it shows her dark side, in Bhairava Geetha she elopes with the henchman.
The one good thing is that the film has beautiful locations and cinematography by Jagadeesh Cheekati is the highlight of the film as he captures the beautiful locales near Kadapa and Kurnool. Music by Ravi Shankar is also good, especially the background score. The dialogues are well-written.
Dhanunjaya looks natural as Bhairava, Ira Mor is glamorous and okay. Balraj as Subba Reddy is perfect as the cruel landlord, Many others in the cast, including Katta Reddy, are natural.
One wonders, however, what in the film impressed an experienced filmmaker like Ram Gopal Varma that he spoke so much in its praise.
