'RGV Deyyam' has finally released in theatres after a delay of more than 7 years. Originally named 'Patta Pagalu', the film is directed by Ram Gopal Varma. Is the film worth a watch? Find out in our review.
Story
Vijji (Swathi Deekshit) is pathetically possessed by a ghost. She and her father (Dr. Rajasekhar as a mechanic) are clueless. Her stepmother (Anitha Choudary) and her stepbrother are way too paranoid. Two cops, two medical experts and two occult practitioners enter the screen, one after one, to help Vijji get rid of the murderous ghost.
Performances
The film belongs to Swathi Deekshit, who is seen in almost every scene. Last year, as a wild card contestant of Bigg Boss Season 4, Swathi attained some degree of fame. In this film, she is seen as a college girl who is barely out of her teens. She delivers an okayish performance.
Rajasekhar's image has changed over the years. He is back to doing angry man roles, as films like 'PSV Garuda Vega' and 'Kalki' have shown. The mawkish role in this film looks ill-fitting. Anitha Choudary's character should have been played by a serious actress. Jeeva and Benarjee play cops whose dubbing is flawed. Ananth and Tanikella Bharani try hard to evoke laughs, but with the wrong kind of dubbing, they end up irritating us.
Sana is seen as a teacher who shouts like a stepmother 2.0. Ahuti Prasad and Devadas Kanakala, both of whom are not alive, look disinterested.
Technical aspects
DSR's background music would have been adequate for a TV serial from which viewers have sub-zero expectations. These days, even web films made by regional OTT platforms are conscious of technical quality. It's shocking that RGV deemed it fit to release a product like this in this day and age. Satish Muthyala's basic cinematography, too, falls in the same category.
Analysis
We live in an age wherein streaming platforms, with humongous financial resources at their disposal, are making fine quality thrillers (on the technical front). In 'RGV Deyyam', can you guess what is deployed for jump scares? Two dolls that RGV most probably bought from a China toy shop in Koti, Hyderabad.
If your material is adequate, you don't have to spend a bomb on VFX (to be sure, this film has no VFX). But does the material in 'RGV Deyyam' pass muster? In one of the scenes, a mob of cute school kids executes the unthinkable without generating an iota of shock in the audience. If your writing and execution are this bad, you have to rely at least on visual effects.
Somehow, most of the characters are quarrelsome in the film. A psychiatrist puts uncomfortable questions to the possessed girl without informing her father about his style of interrogation beforehand. This piques the father, who becomes an angry man for a while before being back to his sobbing self (Rajasekhar is seen crying and crying and crying in almost all scenes).
The characters explain away the strangest things in a silly manner. When the girl sticks out her tongue and stretches it dangerously, a character suggests that such acrobatics are possible. We guess such mental gymnastics are possible when RGV is the director.
Rajasekhar is a mechanic who lives in a 2BHK that his possessed daughter does a recce of night after night. Quite inexplicably, a kid is always seen around whenever the girl is rabidly possessed and is being treated by occult practitioners. He is terrified at the sight of it all, much like the audience watching this sub-par movie.
Closing Remarks
'RGV Deyyam' is an unremarkable horror movie that should have been released 20 years ago. Did RGV dump it on theatres because it is not fit for even RGV World Theatre?
