If not for Tamannaah, it would have been an ordeal to sit through this uninspired horror fable, notes Arjun Menon.

After the success of Odela Railway Station, the creative team is back with the sequel. It’s bigger in scale but ends up being less effective than the first installment.

The writer and director duo of Ashok Teja and Sampath Nandi respectively, pick up with the vengeful spirit of the serial killer of women, Tirupati, by his wife Radha (Hebah Patel). His corpse is sealed off by the villagers for good.

Odela 2 is set up akin to a traditional Western with a village in trouble, and a visiting mystery figure who can end the local population’s tryst with paranormal revelations plaguing their everyday life.

The film tells the story of how the two forces of good and evil clash in a game of supernatural face-off.

 

Tamannaah Bhatia plays Naga Sadhu, headlining the film as the soulful protector figure.

The actress, who makes her first appearance close to the midpoint of the film, lends her stardom to a part that is caricaturish by design.

The antics are timid, dated and belong to an entirely different era of mainstream exorcism-based cinema.

But her screen presence elevates the one-note, blunt iteration on paper of the godly figure, who wears her spiritual aura and propriety on her sleeve. She can invoke the powers of Gods at will and push back against the threats made by the battered, cocky spirit haunting the village.

Odela 2 is interested in the subtle pleasures of horror filmmaking but invests in being a loud, categorically low-stakes CGI showreel.

There are multiple set pieces featuring VFX shots that are staged with little to no emotional impact.

The dialogue exchanges and visual back and forth lack the visceral thrills of overwrought, sleazy ideas and the pulpy potential of the ghost story.

The film tries too hard to look bigger in scope and impact but has little to no material to back up the superficial treatment.

The attempts at discussing spiritual ideas and exploring the concept of ‘God’ is underwritten.

Ashok Teja keeps things moving quickly but the nonexistent beating heart of the whole film keeps it largely unimpactful.

There is a sense of excessive sadism and crudeness in the treatment of the plight of the villagers, which is left off randomly as a plot point with no follow-up in the latter half.

Everything is tied up conveniently, and the clumsy screenwriting poses no serious challenge to Tamannaah’s larger-than-life figure.

The thumping score by Kantara fame Ajaneesh Lokanath is not given the space to elevate the stale plotting and self-indulgent action.

Soundarajan’s frames are energetic and vibrant, with the tonal jerks and lack of visual imagination being salvaged to an extent by his easy-on-the-eye lensing.

The only person walking away from this boisterous, campy horror outing is Tamannaah Bhatia, who gets to indulge in some larger-than-life ‘hero’ moments.

She gets to revel in the surface pleasures of the material and play it up, unlike anything we have ever seen her do in the past.

If not for her, it would have been an ordeal to sit through the random, uninspired horror fable.

The setup for the third installment also falls flat.

There is only so much a committed, sincere performance from Tamannaah can do to save a film that is falling apart at the seams, one scene at a time.

Odela 2 Review Rediff Rating: