Bhaagamathie

<p>In , Eshwar Prasad vows to resign from his post if the government fails to recover idols that were stolen over a period of six months. This troubles his political rivals, who forge a plan to destroy his credibility with the help of Joint Director Vaishnavi Natarajan and Sampath. The two plan to interrogate and Eshwar’s close confidate Chanchala Reddy, who is in jail for murdering her husband Shakthi, Sampath’s brother. To avoid attention, they shift her to Bhaagamathie bungalow, a dilapidated, supposedly haunted house on the outskirts of a village which was ruled by a Queen named Bhaagamathie before , for the interrogation. Vaishnavi interrogates Chanchala to get some clues against Eshwar, but she repeats that they are doubting his integrity without any proof in a cryptic but leading manner. Later that night, Bhaagamathie’s spirit, takes control of Chanchala. The CBI team calls upon a to investigating the matter, who concludes that Chanchala must be schizophrenic as she seems to take on a different persona and narrate some story from a book as if it were her own. As the story goes, Queen Bhaagamathie was the princess who fought the when the Dynasty of king Devraj had no sons and was invaded by the Nawabs. She came across Chandrasenan, a man who pretended to be nice and was given the position of general by the people. He showed his true colours when he got the post. He looted money, land and even god. He then spread rumors that Bhaagamathie was mad and made her a prisoner in her own chamber. Unable to bear this, Bhaagamathie committed suicide. The psychiatrist suggests that the CBI commit her to an asylum. However, Sampath suspects that this might be a ploy by her to escape and arranges for a spiritual guru to find out if there is . The guru suggests a few indicators. Later, Sampath discovers that those indicators to indicate the presence of ghosts in the bungalow. He also finds Chanchala hurting herself under the influence of the ghost. This leads to Sampath taking Chanchala to a . Eshwar visits her at the mental asylum, where it is revealed that Chanchala had planned the entire thing to escape the CBI in return for (US$35 million) kickback from Eshwar. It is also revealed that Eshwar had forced Chanchala to kill Shakthi, threatening to kill the villagers involved in a welfare project to hide his scam. Meanwhile, Vaishnavi realizes that Chanchala was trying to convey the truth of Eshwar’s crimes using the story of Queen Bhaagamathie, which she came across from the various writings and artifacts that she had discovered in the bungalow. She also finds evidence of Eshwar’s misdeeds and the site where he hid the villagers after killing Shakthi. When Eshwar finds out that he is exposed, he is killed by Sampath, who discovered the truth that Chanchala didn’t murder Shakthi. Thus vindicated, Chanchala is seen running a charity organization in Shakthi’s memory. Vaishnavi tells her that they thought they knew everything about her but never knew that she was a great magician in her childhood and that she knew . Chanchala replies by saying that she does not know Arabic, which shocks them, hinting that there was actual paranormal activity in the house. , who had previously worked on (2011) and (2013), readied the script in 2012 and had written it keeping in mind. In late 2012, the team approached Anushka, and the actress liked the script but was not able to immediately commit to the film, as she had pending projects such as (2015) and (2015), where she also played warrior princesses. The film was later delayed when Anushka chose to star in (2014), attempt an ambitious size-shifting role in (2015) and complete her portions for (2017). Ashok subsequently chose to wait for her, rather than cast a new actress and refined the script during the waiting period. Early media reports claimed that the film would be based on the queen , but the makers denied this and revealed that the film would be a “social drama”. commenced in June 2016 in . The film’s title is derived from the Bagmati river that flows through Nepal, while Ashok also stated that the titled was also inspired by the fact that was formed in the name of Bhagamathi or Bhagi Nagara. Once she began working on the film in 2016, she shed 20 kilograms through a rigorous diet plan to portray her character of an IAS Officer. Produced by UV Creations in Telugu and released by in Tamil. A dubbed Malayalam version of the film was also prepared to have a simultaneous release with the other two versions. The film’s music was composed by . The song “Mandaara” was released as single from the album of on 19 December 2016 on the page of Mango Music, UV Creations. The song was sung by . The music video of the track features and . On the same day of release, it was made available for online streaming at , and . The Tamil version of the song, lyrics by and sung by , was released at a function held by in Chennai, which marked four significant events for the producers — the audio launch of , a single launch of (2018), a single launch of (2018) and the success meet for (2018). On the website , 83% of 6 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. rated the film 3.5/5, stating ” is an impressive outing for the whole cast and crew, and it’s also a reminder for us that there are plenty of ways to narrate a story despite having a dilapidated house, a ghost, a hapless young woman, and a gut-wrenching backstory. A big thumbs up for the film.” also rated it 3.5/5 and stated, “This is definitely worth a watch. For Anushka Shetty. For the story. and for the two combined.” rated it 3.25/5, writing “On the whole, is an engaging thriller with good horror and interesting twists at regular intervals. Anushka leads from the front and will surely pull the crowds with her standout performance. The film is made on a lavish scale, and because of this, the thrills look quite good on screen. But the story is familiar, and the first half gets a bit slow. If you ignore these aspects, ends up a pretty decent watch this weekend. Go for it.” rated it 3/5, writing, “Bhaagamathie is a kind of film that’s difficult make and difficult to position in Telugu market. Director and production house have packaged the film in such a way that it partly satisfies the people who look for horror elements and the audiences who seek a thrill. Despite having a complicated screenplay, Bhaagamathie tries to give something for everybody. Plus points of the film are Anushka, screenplay and background music. On the flip side, the narration should have been true to its genre. On the whole, is a well-packaged thriller.” also rated it 3/5 and wrote, “The film draws inspiration from history and adds a dash of supernatural to serve us a crime thriller. After the trailer, many believed that this could be a redux of Anushka’s claim to fame, . Instead, G Ashok turns it into a riveting thriller that works wonders despite its flaws. You are on the edge of your seat through most of the film, trying to understand if Chanchala is possessed or not.” The film collected close to (US$5.9 million) at the worldwide box office. It collected (US$4.3 million) in the first weekend and (US$1.8 million) on the weekdays at the worldwide box office. The film collected (US$6.1 million) at first week.</p>