Odela 2 Movie Review

Odela Railway Station came as a direct-to-OTT release in 2022 and received a decent response. Now, the creator of the movie, Sampath Nandi, has roped in Tamannaah Bhatia as a Naga Sadhu and made Odela 2 on a huge canvas, promoting it on a massive scale. Let us dive deep into our review and see if this sequel tops the first part or not.

Setup:

Following part 1, after his death, Tirupati (Vasishta Simha) is given a Samadhi Shiksha instead of being cremated, as decided by the village heads and people of Odela. Because of this, Tirupati’s soul never attains moksha and he turns into an evil spirit, committing multiple rapes and murders in the village. Once they discover the truth, the villagers approach Radha (Hebbah Patel) for help. She then tells them about Shiva Shakti/Bhavani (Tamannaah), her estranged sister who was set on a divine path in her childhood. Will she return to the village upon the villagers’ request to contain Tirupati? If so, how does she go about it? What challenges await her forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Even though the makers publicized Tamannaah as the showrunner of this movie, she makes her first appearance only in the pre-interval sequence. She was alright in a few parts, but the screen presence required for such a powerful role was missing. Vasishta Simha was good enough in his role, which remained more or less the same throughout. His dubbing reminds us of Pasupathi from Arundhati. Hebbah Patel had very few bridging sequences but performed poorly in them. Murali Sharma had a role similar to Sayaji Shinde from Arundhati and was confined to very limited scenes. Other character artists were all okay, with nothing striking except for some melodramatic moments.

Technicalities:

Cinematography by Soundararajan was decent. Editing by Avinash is below par, as the movie feels very repetitive in terms of shot composition. The same drone shots were used several times as transitions. The pace of the movie is also inconsistent. Ajaneesh Loknath did a fairly decent job as this kind of movie falls within his comfort zone. He used separate theme music for Tirupati and Bhavani. At times, even though the music feels repetitive, it serves the purpose. However, he delivered a very average score during the climax, where some major reveals happen. Director Ashok Teja, under the supervision of Sampath Nandi, had the huge task of executing a film mounted on such a large canvas. His inexperience is evident as he fails to deliver due to a lack of a strong script. The story, screenplay, and dialogues by Sampath Nandi feel very outdated and fail to engage.

Thumbs Up:

Background score in a few parts

Setup in the initial 20 minutes

Thumbs Down:

Story, Screenplay, and Direction

Bad CGI

Below-par performances

Boring proceedings

Analysis:

From the start, the film revolves around an underlying concept—Shiva Shakti’s pursuit to attain divine darshan of Lord Shiva with her grit and determination by chanting Om Namah Shivaya 10 crore times. Alongside this, there is the conflict of the evil spirit Tirupati in Odela Village. Any average moviegoer can predict how the story will unfold and where it will end. It’s up to the makers to surprise the audience with engaging twists and gripping screenplay along the way, even if the end is a given. But Odela 2 fails miserably in doing so.

Coming as a sequel to a crime thriller, Odela 2 ventures into the overused concept of divine versus evil. An engaging screenplay or powerful sequences are essential to make this theme work. However, writer-director Sampath Nandi completely falters by stuffing every possible element—horror, gore, killings, CG-heavy sequences, sadhus, preachings, and gods. None of it manages to hold attention, resulting in a repetitive and dull drama, dragged down further by subpar performances and weak technical aspects. The makers projected Tamannaah as the surprise element with a strong performance, but they fail to utilize her properly. There isn’t a single scene that elevates the divinity or power of her character, except for a brief moment in the climax.

Relying on the sequel factor, the Hindutva angle, and supernatural elements, the movie might pull in a few curious viewers to theatres, but even they may find it a tiring watch. On top of all this, the makers repeat the same conflict at the end as a tease for Odela 3.

Bottomline: Soulless Sequel

Rating : 2/5