Maa Oori Polimera 2 Review

Elaborate black magic rituals and gory blood sacrifices are the hallmarks of Dr Anil Vishwanath's "Maa Oori Polimera" series, a dark thriller that follows mysterious deaths in the village of Jasthipalli. Following the success of the first part on a streaming service, it returned for a second part as a theatrical release. Komariah (Satyam Rajesh), a black magician, goes missing from Jasthipalli leaving behind his doe-eyed wife Lakshmi (Kamakshi Bhaskarla) and their kid. His brother Jangaiah (Baladitya) sets off to investigate his disappearance and never returns. Other mysterious deaths in the village go unexplained as well. All these events seem to bear connection to the abandoned temple at the outskirts of the village.

The second part, grander in scale and scope, serves to fill all the holes and mysteries of the first, without moving the story forward all that much. With a screenplay that would give anyone serious whiplash, the story advances back and forth, jumping across timelines and places - Jasthipalli, Dubai, Hyderabad, Sabari Hills - creating small mysteries that are then solved a few minutes later. Much of the story is narrated, sometimes by Komari, and at other times by the town's new police chief Ravinder Naik, played by a very savvy Rakendu Mouli. By the end, several of the deaths that occur in the first part are explained.

A lot can be explained away when occult forces are part of a storyline. And this film does just that. What we are made to believe is a certain character is later revealed to be another person altogether. The reason for the confusion is explained away with a black magic artifact - an hallucinogenic amulet of sorts. There are plots within plots within plots. At times, it feels as though the audience is part of a twisted game of snake and ladders with the film's writer: just as soon as you accept a certain outcome in the story, a die is rolled, we encounter a snake, and we are thrown back to some older timeline or a different perspective that recasts the entire story.

Speaking of snakes, there is a CGI-heavy scene where a man gets mobbed by hundreds of snakes that sit guard to a temple's treasure. It is an image that makes your insides turn. Indeed, if you are aesthetically sensitive or scare easily, Maa Oori Polimera 2 is hardly the film for you. Blood sacrifice rituals are shown in excruciating detail. And there is a certain recklessness in the way its women are treated. Down to the last female character, they are either mad, or murderous, or taken advantage of, or accursed.

Maa Oori Polimera 2 also sets up an eerie atmosphere appropriate for its dark themes. Komari's house hangs forebodingly on the edge of a cliff; the village bus stop is under the banyan tree; inside the ancient temple, the frescos stand out against fading evening light. The black magic rituals look scarily authentic, although they don't quite evolve beyond how Telugu TV matinee serials depict them.

The film's performances are almost secondary to the overbearing screenplay which dictates how much a performer can afford to emote in a given scene, knowing that a few minutes later, some flashback will disqualify their reaction entirely and rewrite the narrative. A woman eagerly makes dinner for a man, but much later, it is revealed that she has poisoned him with that very meal. How much can she let the murder plan show in her face in that first scene when she enthusiastically cooks for him? Not much.

Even with a cast of diminished purpose, Kamakshi Bhaskarla stands out with her large expressive eyes and searching looks. Satyam Rajesh who plays Komaraiah gets a bit lost inside the ritualistic scenes, and even otherwise has a muted screen presence. Rakendu Mouli who plays a snobbish cop brings some much-needed energy to the ongoings.

Maa Oori Polimera 2 ends with as many of its mysteries unsolved as it started. If part two is anything to go by, there are several more parts in the offing, with many more ruses and twists that a story without rules can accommodate.