Vennela Kishore Archives

Review: ‘Bhairavam,’ starring Sai Srinivas Bellamkonda, Manchu Manoj and Nara Rohith

June 1, 2025

by Carla Hay

Manoj Manchu, Bellamkonda Sai Sreenivas, Jayasudha and Nara Rohith in “Bhairavam” (Photo courtesy of Prathyangira Cinemas)

Directed by Abishan Jeevinth

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the action film “Bhairavam” (a remake of the 2024 film “Garudan”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Three best friends experience violent power struggles over control of a sacred temple and the land around the temple.

Culture Audience: “Bhairavam” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, “Garudan” and predictable action movies about loyalties and betrayals among family members and friends.

Sharath Lohithaswa in “Bhairavam” (Photo courtesy of Prathyangira Cinemas)

“Bhairavam” is a stale and clumsy story of three best friends and betrayals over control of a scared temple. This bloated and repetitive Telugu remake of the Tamil film “Garudan” is just a dull collection of violent fights and vapid acting performances. The movie’s song-and-dance numbers are mediocre and unnecessary.

Written and directed by Vijay Kanakamedala, “Bhairavam” is an inferior remake of the 2023’s “Garudan,” which was written and directed by R. S. Durai Senthilkumar. ” The plot is essentially the same for both movies, but “Bhairavam” is soulless and offers very little to care about the main characters. As is the case with many terrible action movies, “Bhairavam” (which translates to “fearsome” or “terrible” in English) tries to overcompensate for its monotnous story by having obnoxiously loud blaring of the movie’s score music and sound mixing.

“Bhairavam” (which takes place in an unnamed city in India) begins with an introduction explaining a Varahi Amman temple has been desecrated by various robberies. The trustee of the temple is Nagaratnamma (played by Jayasudha), who is the elderly matriarch of her family. Nagaratnamma expects that after she dies, the someone else in her family will take over the trusteeship of the temple.

Meanwhile, a circle inspector named Pardha Sarathi (played by Sampath Raj), who has 20 years of experience as police law enforcement, announces to his supervisor that he’s resigning from his job three months ahead of schedule. He says he wants to take this retirement early because he no longer feels proud to serve on the police force. Pardha says he blames one person for this disillusionment.

“Bhairavam” then does a flashback to three months earlier to show the events leading up t Pardha deciding to going to retirement earlier than he originally planned. The story focuses on three men who have been friends with each other since childhood. All three men experience various tests of their friendships and get entangled in power struggles over the temple after Nagaratnamma dies.

These are the three friends who are at the center of the story:

Gajapathi Varma (played by Manchu Manoj) is the affluent grandson of Nagaratnamma. He is the most ruthless and the most aggressive of the three friends. In the beginning of the story, Gajapathi and his wife Neelima (played by Anandhi) are childless and have been trying to have their first child.
Varadha (played by Nara Rohith) can be a good guy, but he flip-flops on his morality and loyalty to others, depending what will serve him best. He owns a successful company called Varadha Imports and is happily married to his devoted wife Poornima (played by Divya Pillai), who. Varadha and Poornima have two children: a son in his early teens and a daughter who’s about 5 or 6 years old.
Seenu (played by Sai Srinivas Bellamkonda) is the most ethical and compassionate of the three friends. Seenu was an orphan boy who met Gajapathi when Seenu saved Gajapathi’s life. A grateful Nagaratnamma then adopted Seenu, who is portrayed from the beginning as the obvious “hero” of the story.

As adults, Gajapathi (who is vengeful and has a nasty temper) does not treat Seenu as an equal member of his family. Seenu works in a low-level job for Gajapathi. Seenu has a working-class lifestyle, which is in contrast to the more upscale lifestyles of Gajapathi and Varadha. Seenu is a bachelor, but he invetiably gets a love interest. Her name is Vennela (played by Aditi Shankar), who is opinionated and flirtatious, but she’s not given much to do except go on dates with Gajapathi and dance with him in the movie’s musical numbers.

After the death of Nagaratnamma, there’s a power struggle over who will take ownership of the temple and its valuable surrounding property. A corrupt politician named Minister Vedurupalli Venkateshwara Rao (played by Sharath Lohitashwa) wants to take control. He enlists the help of his brother-in-law Nagaraju (played by Ajay), also known as Theatre, who is a somewhat bumbling criminal.

The brutal and vicious tones of the fight scenes are awkwardly mixed with some comedy that and light-hearted musical numbers that don’t fit well in the movie at all. A somewhat dorky police inspector named Sundarachari (played by Vennela Kishore) has a small role in the movie not because the Sundarachari is needed for the movie’s plot but because it looks like the filmmakers just wanted to put Kishore in the movie for some mindless comic relief.

The most impressive aspects of “Bhairavam” are the movie’s cinematography and production design, which make “Bhairavam” look very stylish. Too bad the story and acting don’t match. The movie’s visual effects are serviceable, but the over-the-top and unrealistic action sequences just mind-numbing and quite dull after a while.

Ultimately, the characters and performances in the very uneven “Bhairavam” just aren’t very appealing. Seenu is supposed to be “heroic” but he’s personality has no depth. And at 140 minutes, “Bhairavam” is entirely too long for a story that looks like a very uninspired rehash of any overblown action film about greed and revenge plots.

Prathyangira Cinemas released “Bhairavam” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on May 30, 2025.

Review: ‘#Single’ (2025), starring Sree Vishnu, Ketika Sharma, Ivana, Vennela Kishore, VTV Ganesh and Kalpa Latha

May 12, 2025

by Carla Hay

Pictured from left to right: Ivana and Sree Vishnu; Ketika Sharma and Sree Vishnu in “#Single” (Photo courtesy of Geetha Arts and Kayla Films)

“#Single” (2025)

Directed by Caarthick Raju

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the romantic comedy film “#Single” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A bachelor and his best friend get involved in various hijinks when the bachelor romances two women at the same time.

Culture Audience: “#Single” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and people who don’t mind watching mindless romantic comedies.

Vennela Kishore and Sree Vishnu in “#Single” (Photo courtesy of Geetha Arts and Kayla Films)

“#Single” has a plot that’s entirely too flimsy for this tiresome romantic comedy to be stretched to 130 minutes. This irritating flop (about a manipulative bachelor involved in a love triangle) is filled with stale jokes and an odious concept that it’s supposed to be cute for men to treat women like pawns. Needless to say “#Single” is neither romantic nor funny.

Written and directed by Caarthick Raju, “#Single” is essentially a movie that has one or two jokes that are run into the ground early and often. Vijay (played by Sree Vishnu) is a 35-year-old bachelor who works at a bank with his best friend Aravind (played by Vennela Kishore), who is engaged to be married. Vijay is a tactless boor who constantly embarrasses people who are close to him because he says rude or inappropriate things.

Vjay has no self-awareness of how obnoxious he is. It’s supposed to make Vijay look like an “underdog.” Needless to say, Aravind’s fiancée Gayathri (played by Anuraga) doesn’t like Vijay. Gayathri is not in the movie enough to make a difference to the plot. Avarind spends more time with Vijay than with Gayathri.

Vijay sees Poorva/Purva, whose name is spelled both ways in the movie, on a dating app and is immediately smitten. Just by chance, Vijay sees Poorva/Purva (played by Ketika Sharma) in person on a train and stages a scene so that he looks like a “hero” when dealing with some hoodlums on the train. But Poorva/Purva doesn’t see this set-up. Instead, Vijay catches the eye of Harini (played by Ivana), who is immediately attracted to Vijay and wants to date him. The rest of “#Single” includes a needlessly convoluted plot about Vijay pretending to be interested in buying an Audi from Poorva/Purva, who’s a salesperson at a car dealership.

Vijay also plays mind games with Harini. Harini’s unnamed mother (played by Kalpa Latha, also known as Kalpalatha Garlapati) needs medical surgery that the mother cannot afford, so the movie goes off on a tangent about whether or not Vijay will give money to Harini for the surgery. There’s also a mishandled subplot about the bank manager boss (played VTV Ganesh), who is married, having an affair with a bank cashier Kalyani (played by Indu), who is young enough to be the boss’ daughter. Predictably, Vijay and Avarind get involved in this mess. Aravind is Vijay’s buffoonish sidekick throughout this irksome movie.

The acting performances in “#Single” are annoying but some people might get a few laughs if their standards are very low. There are some generic song-and-dance numbers. None of it is fun to watch. “#Single” ends abruptly and announces that the story will be continued in a sequel. It’s a sequel that most people who’ve seen “#Single” will not want or care to see at all.

Geetha Arts and Kayla Films released “#Single” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on May 9, 2025.

Review: ‘The Family Star,’ starring Vijay Deverakonda and Mrunal Thakur

April 7, 2024

by Carla Hay

“The Family Star”

Directed by Parasuram

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Hyderabad, India, and in New York City, the comedy/drama film “The Family Star” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A workaholic architect, who is the main financial caretaker for his large family, physically beats people up in various circumstances and has a volatile relationship with a woman who becomes his tenant.

Culture Audience: “The Family Star” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and stupid movies with egotistical main characters.

Vijay Deverakonda and Vennela Kishore in “The Family Star” (Photo courtesy of Sarigama Cinemas)

“The Family Star” is a disgusting glorification of toxic masculinity. This horrible movie excuses the arrogant protagonist’s physical abuse of his love interest. The film’s messy tone goes from melodrama in the first half to wretched comedy in the second half. “The Family Star” is a shameful and shoddy waste of time and has the putrid gall to literally describe the abusive main character as a “superhero” multiple times in the movie. It shows an appalling and warped attitude about what it means to be a decent and respectful human being.

Written and directed by Parasuram, “The Family Star” has a total runtime (about 159 minutes) that is as bloated as the protagonist’s ego. “The Family Star” has an unrelenting materialistic message that a man is a “hero” if he provides gifts and financial security to his loved ones. The problem is that the movie’s protagonist does a lot of things to show that he’s definitely not a hero: He physically beats up people in business deals. He cruelly slaps his love interest very hard in the face because she described him as financially struggling. He is obsessively controlling over who can spend money on his family. The movie’s fight scenes are over-the-top idiotic because the central character has superhuman strength with no explanation.

In “The Family Star,” the jerk who is grossly elevated to “superhero” status is Govardhan (played by Vijay Deverakonda), a 25-year-old bachelor architect who financially supports several family members who live with him in Hyderabad, India. The family members are his grandmother, his two older brothers, his brothers’ wives, his two nephews and three nieces. The children’s ages range from about 5 to 11 years old. Almost all of these relatives of Govardhan do not have names in the movie, which is the movie’s way of saying that Govardhan is the only family member who matters the most in this trashy story.

Govardhan’s grandmother (played by Rohini Hattangadi) tells Govardhan that he needs to get married so that he doesn’t have to carry the burden of taking care of his brothers’ families. One of Govardhan’s brothers (played by Ravi Prakash) is an unemployed alcoholic. The other brother (played by Raja Chembolu) has a struggling business and is heavily in debt. The brothers’ wives (played by Vasuki Anand and Abhinaya) are passive and mainly react to whatever Govardhan does.

It’s mentioned several times in the movie that whenever something needs fixing in the household, Govardhan takes care of everything. He also helps with grocery shopping and cooking. “The Family Star” keeps trying to make Govardhan look like he’s caring and responsible. And there are times he can be affectionate to his family members. But the reality is that he uses his “head of household” status as a way to manipulate and control his family and other people in his life. He also has a nasty temper and often verbally lashes out at people, including his family members.

Govardhan is obsessed with social class status and being upwardly mobile. He is middle-class, but he wants to be thought of as “upper middle-class.” Throughout “The Family Star,” it’s pretty clear that Govardhan is on an ego trip about being the family “breadwinner,” and he likes feeling superior to everyone in the household. Govardhan also likes to make his family members feel guilty that he’s their main source of financial support. He takes advantage of that guilt by acting like a dictator to his family. He also likes using his “breadwinner” position as a way to boost his public image, so that people can admire him for being such a “great” family man.

At Govardhan’s office job, an attractive female co-worker (played by Divyansha Kaushik), who’s about the same age as Govardhan, seems to be in love with Govardhan. She has proposed marriage to him several times, but he has rejected her proposals every time. (These marriage proposals are not shown in the movie, but they are mentioned in conversations.) Govardhan smugly tells her that he’s too caught up in his family’s problems and responsibilities to get married.

“The Family Star” is so stupid, there’s a scene early in the movie where Govardhan does a business pitch in a meeting for one of his ridiculous architectural designs. His design is a three-bedroom household that is only 600 square feet. Govardhan says that people who are psychologically happy with this small living space won’t complain. However, it’s obvious that the real size problem is Govardhan’s small mind.

Govardhan has a penthouse that he barely uses. This penthouse is next to the place where Govardhan lives with his family. The penthouse is being rented by a wealthy young woman named Indu (played by Mrunal Thakur), who is a graduate student at Central University. A flashback shows that before Indu rented the place, she was warned that Govardhan is very protective of his family and doesn’t want his family’s privacy to be disturbed. She decided to rent the place anyway.

Govardhan doesn’t really like a stranger living on his property. He has told his grandmother that he’s going to tell Indu to leave. However, Govardhan has been postponing this eviction conversation with Indu for two reasons: First, he doesn’t really want give up the rent money he’s getting from Indu, who makes sure that Govardhan sees that she carries large wads of cash. Second, Govardhan is infatuated with Indu, but he doesn’t want to admit it to anyone yet.

Govardhan is such a control freak, he tells Indu that she can’t buy delivery meals because the kids in the household will want the same meals when they see the meals being delivered. Govardhan orders Indu to only have meals that she can cook in her own home, or else she can go out somewhere else to eat instead. Indu tells Govardhan that if the kids request certain things to eat, there’s nothing wrong with agreeing to their requests. Govardhan strongly disagrees.

The real issue for Govardhan is that Indu has been trying to befriend the women and children in the household. She is kind to them and often gives them gifts. Govardhan is insecure and feels threatened that Indu (who has a lot more money than he does) will be more respected than he is by his family members.

One day, Indu treats the women and children to a party dinner at a shopping mall’s food court. They all have a good time. But when Govardhan finds out, he has a temper tantrum and orders his family members to stay away from Indu. Meanwhile, Indu sees and hears Govardhan go on this rant, and she feels insulted, but she eventually forgives Govardhan, and they start dating each other.

“The Family Star” is an annoying, tedious mishmash showing the ups and downs of the relationship between Govardhan and Indu. It’s a repetitive loop of Govardhan doing something wrong, Indu getting upset and distancing herself from him, and then she eventually goes back to him. It’s the movie’s terrible attempt to make a co-dependent, abusive relationship look romantic.

The scene where Govardhan slaps Indu on the face happens in front of several of her university colleagues. This slap was not done in self-defense. Govardhan slapped Indu because he was angry that Indu did an academic report where she truthfully described Govardhan as having financial problems. What makes the scene even more heinous is that no one says or does anything about this physical assault, which is a crime where the attacker should be held accountable. However, “The Family Star” makes this physical abuse look acceptable and eventually acts like the slap never even happened.

The movie’s not-funny-at all attempts at comedy, especially in the second half of the film, have no imagination and just regurgitate things that have been seen and done in so many other romantic comedies where a rich woman is being courted by a man who is not wealthy. In this part of the movie, Indu’s student lifestyle completely disappears and turns into something else that involves Indu’s business mogul father (played by Jagapathi Babu) and one of his hapless employees named Samarth (played by Vennela Kishore), who is ordered to spend time with Govardhan, for reasons that are explained in this garbage movie.

“Family Star” has a pathetic “battles of the sexes” storyline that’s phony and unappealing. All of the acting performances in “The Family Star” are mediocre or substandard. The musical numbers are unimpressive. Everything about “The Family Star” is creatively bankrupt, so it deserves to be the flop that it is.