Some films make you feel like an adult attending a children’s birthday party. You see all these little souls jumping around and having fun, and you feel happy for them even if it doesn’t do much for you. The kids are amused, and you try your best to imbibe the fun. Sree Harsha Konuganti’s latest directorial, Om Bheem Bush, is one such film.
When the makers boldly proclaimed in their poster, “No logic, only magic,” you take it with a pinch of salt. But Om Bheem Bush, which revolves around the shenanigans of three carefree young scamsters, takes the tagline seriously. I don’t mean it in a pejorative manner. Om Bheem Bush is silly in an enjoyable way, but it’s also disappointing that the film doesn’t attempt strongly enough to go beyond its comfort. Writer-director A Harsha Konuganti is too content with a generic brand of comedy. The narrative hops and frolics with childlike energy, pleased with its meta references and one-liners. The results are not bad; we get plenty of laughs, yet it’s nothing new. Some of the tropes, like Krish’s (Sree Vishnu) knack for using incorrect English phrases, get tiring after a point.
There is one sequence where the film delves into the kind of madness you expect from a slapstick comedy. Our three protagonists, who we are told are mere fraudsters under the garb of their doctorate degrees, attempt to cure a man’s infertility issues. The ‘scientific’ methodology they use is so shockingly bizarre, that you have no choice but to gape in awe and then slowly give into chuckles.
A premise like Om Bheem Bush needed more of such no-holds-barred lunacy, but the makers surprisingly don’t push themselves enough, at least in the first half. Fortunately, Rahul Ramakrishna and Priyadarshi are remarkably good with their timing and punchlines, so you make peace with the garden-variety humour for a while. Once the film ushers into the second half, you wonder how long the makers can sustain on such thin ice.
There are a few other elements that pull down the film as well. For instance, the two songs in the first half have an excessive focus on glamour, a desperate attempt to hold the audience’s attention. Amidst all the desperation and run-of-the-mill jokes, you keep hoping that the film might surprise us, and fortunately, director Sree Harsha comes to the rescue towards the end.
Om Bheem Bush is probably the last film that you would expect to make a statement (however flimsy and lightweight) on LGBTQ rights. And somehow, amidst its buffoonery, Om Bheem Bush manages to do just that. This new plot development about our protagonists learning about the past of Sampangi, a ghost figure that has been haunting the village for centuries, is satisfyingly absurd. Despite the anticlimactic revelation, Sampangi never becomes a laughing stock. Such a trope could have easily gone haywire, but there is an earnestness to the way Sree Harsha treats these moments.
Sree Vishnu, despite being the film’s lead, is largely absent in the second half. Not that we particularly mind—Rahul and Priyadarshi are supremely good at holding the scenes, after all—but it’s disconcerting to see a film so imbalanced.
However, it is also through Krish (Sree Vishnu) that the major twist in the narrative arrives. There is something endearing about his straight-faced sincerity as Krish accepts a bizarre challenge for the good of his peers and the entire village. He doesn’t smirk or frown at the absurdity of his situation (Sree Vishnu is also restrained in his act in comparison to his peers, and it works in the film’s favour).
If Om Bheem Bush works, it is because of the madness of the material Sree Harsha has at hand and the earnestness he brings to the screen. Many filmmakers can take on a formulaic story, but it requires conviction to embrace the over-the-top absurdity like Sree Harsha does here. And it’s worth a trip to the theatres just to see an unabashed crowd-pleaser film that takes small risks and still remains standing on its feet till the end.
Review
Movie : Om Bheem Bush
Cast: Sree Vishnu, Rahul Ramakrishna, Priyadarshi, Racha Ravi, Ayesha Khan, Preethi Mukundan
Director: Sree Harsha Konuganti
Rating : 3/5