Aaptharakshaka Movie Reviews

Those cadaverous eyes are back; and so is the doomed painting of that devilish dancer. Nagavalli, who set of records of sorts in her previous outing, is back with her set of thrills and frills; and this time around, she has one gigantic graphical snake for company to scare the dickens out of you. Although the fear factor may not work its charm, you will be reasonably entertained throughout the film.

And of course, the film is a tribute to one of the finest actors we have witnessed in the history of Kannada cinema, Dr. Vishnuvardhan. The legendary artist makes his presence felt in every frame of this film and makes you very, very sad that we will not be seeing him any more on screen or off the screen. This great actor, who until now played a Good Samaritan in most of his films, gets to display his talent in a negative role in Aptharakshaka (he plays a double role) and believe me, it’s an absolute treat to watch him in that role.

What an actor! What a loss!

While Apthamitra had a perfect mix of psychology and paranormal activities, Nagavalli seemingly outweighs the power of reasoning in her second outing. Emboldened by the success of her first outing, she does much more than merely frightening the people for the kick of it. So you have a cash starved painter committing suicide on the very day he gets hold of this cursed painting; you have a snake charmer sucked into the traps of death when he comes face to face with this snake; and you have a bharatanatyam dancer being run over by a lorry the moment he lays his hand on the painting.

The story has loads of spooky overtones used liberally all over the film. Like in the first part, the painting of Nagavalli brings bad omens to a house where it lands up. Strangely, Nagavalli seems to have a penchant for families with similar types of characters! So here is Ramesh Bhat, filling in for the character from Apthamitra and worrying constantly about his grown up daughters. We have Komal playing a sissy sidekick to Dr. Vishnuvardhan (instead of Dwarakish), and we have Bhavana loitering around eerily in the creepy mansion for no apparent reason, trying to fill in the shoes of Prema.

Enter Avinash the witch doctor and Dr. Vishnuvardhan, the world famous psychologist to solve the mystery behind the house which has lots of hot babes with loads of problem. Apart from Bhavana, there is Laxmi Gopalaswamy who partly fills in for Saundarya’s madness; there is Sandhya, playing a damn young research scholar, and there is another girl, playing Komal’s love interest.

Coming back to Vishnu sir and Avinash, more than their characters, it’s the acting of these two fine artists that makes the film worth watching. Avinash is at his thundering best (and for his age, he has an extremely well toned physique!) and Vishnu sir is as usual, exemplary. The dual of wits continues between these two, and that’s what takes the film to the next level, rather than the special effects and the 30 feet snake.

The cinematography from P. K. H Das and editing from Suresh Urs is just what the witch doctor ordered. Guru Kiran’s music is above average, and the special effects do not have much of an effect.

Watch it for Dr. Vishnuvardhan.