Bham Bholenath Movie Review

Story: The film has three different stories which traverse the lives of an unemployed youngster; a small time thief with big dreams; a bunch of friends on their way to a rave party. Little do they know that their paths will cross in more ways than not. The rest of the story is about the twists and turns which unravel in their respective lives.

Movie Review: There’s no dearth of subtle hints all over the film that director Karthik Varma is influenced by the likes of Guy Ritchie, Darren Aronofsky, and Bob Marley. In fact, the film itself almost seems like an ode to Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Although, the film treads a different path, you can’t contend with the tone of the narration which combines crime and comedy to a fascinating degree. But like in most crime thrillers, there’s always a catch. And the catch in this film is that most of the jaw-dropping coincidences sound cool, while reading the script than the impact which the film has in the end.

Bham Bholenath is a film full of coincidences. So much that, as the story unravels, you begin to marvel at how well the three sub-plots begin to come together halfway through the film. You prepare yourself to be sucked into a crazy maze of coincidences and what it might lead to. But soon, the film enters a different zone where no matter how hard you try it becomes more difficult to get on a high. On storytelling, that is. By the time you realise what hit you, the details are blurred at best, and you can only recollect traces of a crazy trip. The climax, in particular, is a bad trip which just doesn’t seem to end no matter how hard you try to shake it off. It’s exactly like wanting to go on a crazy roller coaster ride for the first time, only to realise that you wish it was more thrilling in the last stretch. And that changes everything.

In the film, Navdeep stars as Vishnu, an unemployed graduate with high self-esteem, who is tired of the job-hunting process; however, that doesn’t stop him from depending on his girlfriend, Sri Lakshmi (Pooja Jhaveri) for money. Meanwhile, Krishna (Naveen Chandra), a small time thief who works under Sri Lakshmi’s father, Sethji (Posani Krishna Murali), dreams about going to Dubai and he knows that he’ll need to become rich quickly. Elsewhere, Rocky (Pradeep) and Rishi (Kireeti), who are in a live-in relationship with their respective girlfriends, are high on drugs all the time. One night, the lives of all these people change and it all boils down to getting their hands on a car which has everything that could salvage their dreams.

The film’s best sequence is the turn of events which span out after Rocky and Rishi leave their car behind when they are caught by the police. The car changes hands and the manner in which this entire segment is written and staged in the film makes for a gripping watch; however, the final act of the film nose dives to the bottom which slowly begins to test your patience. Among the actors, Navdeep and Naveen Neni take the cake, thanks to their well-etched characters. Their segment is the best of the lot, followed by that featuring Naveen Chandra and Praveen. Fish Venkat’s extended cameo in the end is hilarious. The entire sub-plot starring Pradeep, Kireeti and their friends just doesn’t work, despite the drug-fuelled comedy.

Writer and director, Karthik Varma Dandu has a flair for writing cool stuff, but it’s the filmmaking itself which doesn’t translate what seems to have been in the script. At a runtime of just over a couple of hours, Bham Bholenath had everything going to be a taut crime comedy thriller. Yet, it feels like a joint which drags in the end.