Story of a man possessed

Tamil actor Vijay Antony has enjoyed a freak success with his dubbed versions in Tollywood of late. The magnificent success of his last film ‘Bichagadu’ is the kind of a dream run any hero would like to have in a new territory.

Riding on its wave, the Thursday release of Antony, titled ‘Bethaludu,’ yet another dual language release has managed a widespread release across the two Telugu-speaking states. Directed by Pradeep Krishnamoorthy, this flick falls into the genre of a psychological thriller, which enables the filmmaker to play with a lot of spooky, scary, dark images and trying his best to scare the audience.

Rooting the proceedings in an urban milieu, the film moves crisply to begin with, in sync with its total running time of just about two hours. Of course, it gives the helmsman the advantage of effectively contrasting it with the rural environment flashback, which haunts the hero. Taking up strands of medical science thus, the film is a combination of paranormal scenes, cruel clinical trials and a tame backend story to justify the weird behaviour of the hero and how it harasses his family no end.

Distinguishing his production from the horror flicks which have flooded the Southern movie market, the director tries to intellectualise the narrative by diagnosing the psycho trauma of the hero differently, veering away from jumpy ghosts lurking in the background. All said and done, it looks stretched, given that the reason for the strange attitudinal shift of Vijay Antony is rather tame.

Not given too many facial expressions or special reactions during sequences, Antony manages to move through the film in a self-assured manner, something which can be considered creditable. Arundhati Nair, despite a bulky frame, with a comparable screen presence, manages to fit the bill of a harried housewife unable to come to terms with her husband’s mood swings.

The characters are also kept to the bare minimum, which is one of the reasons for the film winding up quickly, even as one feels it could have had a stronger second half which could have made a difference to the overall feel of the film.

Film Name : Bethaludu

Cast : Vijay Antony, Arundathi Nair and Charuhasan
Direction : Pradeep Krishnamoorthy
Genre : Thriller
Likes : Focused narration, less hocus pocus
Dislikes : Beaten to death plotline