Bhamakalapam movie review: Priyamani cooks this macabre crime comedy with her charming delight

Bhamakalapam movie review

OTT movie Bhamakalapam review

A move over normal seems to be the mantra this Friday. Deepika Padukone made her OTT debut with Gehraiyaan in a different take on relationship, Priyamani is charming this macabre crime comedy (a rare genre) by serving a digestible (read watchable) dish.

Written and directed by Abhimanyu Tadimeti, ‘Bhamakalapam’ interestingly mixes greed, crime, religion in this macabre comedy thriller and plays hide and seek with comedy, thrills and chills at will.

Influences of Shreeram Raghavan’s Andhadhun, the egg thing was a weird but funny reminder of Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot’s Netflix disaster ‘Red Notice’ and somewhere Bhamakalapam gets sly and sneaky with Hitchcock as well (I don,t tell you when).

Anyways, am not complaining Abhimanyu Tadimeti maintains a reasonable balance between comedy and thrills and the feel is rooted and the middle-class milieu is maintained throughout.

Interestingly titled as Bhamakalapam which traditionally in Kuchipudi ballets is based on the story of the headstrong and proud Satyabhama’s estrangement from Krishna, here they use it as a metaphor to portray the change of events in the life of the protagonist Anupama.

The movie opens with religious event were a priest is talking about the reincarnation of Christ and the Easter egg, cutting to Anupama shooting video of her latest egg recipe.

The pastor in the society Daneil (Kishore Kumar Polimera), the talkative maid Shilpa (Sharanya Pradee), the quirky gangster Nayar (John Vijay) a seventh month pregnant female investigation officer (Shanti Rao) Abhimanyu Tadimeti adds this interesting mix of characters in Anupama’s dance of fate in Bhamakalapam.

Technicalities

Technically sound with Deepak Yeragera’s probing cinematography, Viplav Nyshadam’s fine editing and atmospheric music by Justin Prabhakaran and Mark K Robin adds to the mood.

Performance

Priyamani is outstanding.

John Vijay is very good. Sharanya Pradeep is fantastic while Pammi Sai and Shanti Rao chip in with great support. Special mention for Kishore Kumar Polimera is a must.

Final words

Ready to taste something different – a macabre crime comedy then showrunner Bharat Kamma and director Abhimanyu have asked Priyamani to cook something quirky and tasty for you on Aha.