Virupaksha (film)

In 1979, Venkata Chalapathy is seen performing black magic in his house at the village in Rudravanam, but an enraged mob bursts into his house where they accuse them for the recent mysterious deaths of children in their village, and burn them to death. Chalapathy's wife curses the entire village, telling that the village would be destroyed in the 12th year. Chalapathy's son Bhairava is later admitted to an orphanage by the villagers.

Surya returns to his village Rudravanam after 12 years, that is, in 1991, with his mother and friend, to attend a festival. However, the village is under a lockdown after a villager dies in the temple, and there is a fear of a curse. The village priest imposes an 8-day lockdown where nobody should arrive and leave the village while simultaneously not performing any religious rituals. Although they belong to the village, Surya and his village had not lived in the village for more than a decade, where they are asked to leave before sunset along with other visitors. Surya plans to leave, but later returns as he falls for Nandini when he had to deliver injections to her during an emergency.

Nandini thanks him for his timely help by giving her pendant. Since the ritual is completed, Surya has to stay back in the village. That night, Sudha decides to break the lockdown rules and elope with her lover Kumar, but Kumar is killed by an oncoming train while talking to Sudha, who witnesses the accident becomes shocked, where she walks into a beehive and gets stung by bees to death. As the lockdown progresses, strange events begins to occur and more people's deaths begin in a chain reaction. Surya begins to investigate the curse and learns about Venkata Chalapathy and his wife's past.

Meanwhile, the villagers decides to sacrifice Nandini by also giving their blood to lift the curse. Surya learns that Bhairava is actually alive and is seeking revenge for his parents' death. Surya tells that he will find out a way to get rid of the spell and save Nandini within 8 hours so he leaves the village in search for a solution. With the help of an Aghora, Surya finds the cave where the spell has been cast and it is revealed that Kumar is actually Bhairava and his secret accomplice in the village was helping him with the spell.

After returning to the village, Surya realizes that the whole village has been possessed after giving their blood. In their possessed state, the villagers start walking towards a burning tree, which is actually the same tree on which Chalapathy and his wife were tied and burnt to death. Surya realizes that Nandini is Bhairava's secret accomplice and confronts her. Nandini reveals that her parents were innocent and that her father, a Atharvana Veda practictioner, used his knowledge to fight diseases and curses, which the villagers mistook for evil practices in a frenzy and killed him.

Nandini decides to leave Surya as he had nothing to do with her parents' death. Surya does not leave and decides to fight Nandini to protect the village. Nandini is unable to attack Surya as he has her pendant, whose magical powers act as a shield against her own powers. Seeing no other way, Nandini tearfully asks Surya to kill her, to which he agrees and kills her, thus ending the death plague. While performing Nandini's final rites, Surya requests the villagers to leave their taboo regarding evil practices. He looks at Nandini's pendant in his hand and his eyes start to glow hinting a sequel.

The exteriors and the streets of the fictional Rudravanam village were shot in and around Araku and Paderu in erstwhile Visakhapatnam district, where Karthik Varma also wrote the script.[4][5] The haunted house and sarpanch's house were sets built in Hyderabad.[5]

External audio
Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The film score and soundtrack is composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath. The first song "Nachavule Nachavule" was released on 24 March 2023,[6] while the second song "Kalallo" was released on 17 April 2023.[7]

The film had a theatrical release on 21 April 2023 in Telugu. The film was dubbed and theatrically released in Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam languages on 5 May 2023.[8] The digital and satellite rights of the film were acquired by Netflix and Star Maa respectively.

Virupaksha received positive reviews from critics.[9] Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu praised the story and work by Karthik Varma Dandu. She further praised the production design, editing and cinematography done by Srinagendra Tangala, Navin Nooli and Shamdat Sainudeen.[10] Raghu Bandi of The Indian Express also praised the direction, and story written by Karthik Varma Dandu along with performances of lead actors, particularly Samyuktha Menon's.[11] Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times of India wrote "Virupaksha is a well-crafted film – the kind that makes you look at the characters beyond the actors because the film has a suffocating atmosphere that'll draw you in."[12]

123Telugu gave 3.25 out of 5 stars and wrote "Virupaksha is an engaging mystical thriller that is high on technical values. A good storyline, commendable performances by the actors, pulse-pounding sound effects, and neat direction are its trump cards. Barring the slightly slow second half, this movie very much deserves a theatrical experience for its incredible technical values."[13] Latha Srinivasan of India Today gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "While the climax of the film may appeal to some and not to others, the film focuses on superstitions which some people in the country still believe in. It should be food for thought. On the whole, the film is a good entertainer."[14] The Hans India wrote that story, screenplay, sound design and performance of lead actors, are the major positives of the film.[15]

• Virupaksha at IMDb