When the title appears on screen and the tagline “No logic, only magic” follows immediately after a few opening frames, it is not so much of a clue as it is a rule. It tells you not to nitpick logic while watching this film. The only sensible thing about Om Bheem Bush (OBB) is that it spells out its absurdity. It’s an odd film one that wears its strangeness on its sleeve. So self-aware is the film that it takes itself as seriously as Boyapati does physics or Atlee, originality.
Pop culture and social media-driven references abound in OBB: right from Prabhas’ fandom to Priyadarshi being called Mr Balagam to Sree Vishnu being mocked as Gaali Sampath a movie I’m sure even he has forgotten by now. And therefore, one cannot take this film seriously; you can see through its spoof-level playfulness and tell that it wants nothing more than to make us laugh which it does in many places. The means it chooses to do that may be criticised but this cannot be debated: OBB packs many crackers of scenes and one-liners which had me laughing out loud for a good part of its runtime. Again, let me remember the tagline ‘No logic, only magic.’
Krish (Sree Vishnu), Vinay (Priyadarshi), and Madhav (Rahul Ramakrishna) form one playful trio of goofballs with Vinay being the only one who exercises sense occasionally. Dubbed Bang Bros, the trio lands at Bhairavapuram Town to make money off people’s problems ranging from solving gynecology-related issues to treasure hunts to busting ghosts. But there’s already a ghost living in Bhairavapuram Sampangi resides inside the dreaded Sampangi Mahal which some believe houses tones of treasure. Without giving much away, all I can say is unbelievable things keep happening in this film but it’s the mad trio that keeps it constantly fun.
The dubbing has added countless dialogues and it feels like the film does not give you even one second to breathe because jokes keep coming at you back to back nonstop. For instance, “Whistle worthy moment,” says Krish when Ratthalu (Ayesha Khan) threatens a man in a panchayat violently. So the film keeps commenting on itself and there are many such instances. Once again, let me remember the tagline ‘No logic, only magic.’
While I reiterate that the jokes work because of how unabashedly silly they are and regardless of how much leeway you extend them; however, even silliness has its limits and here writing pushes those limits too far which works for it as well as against it. A significant portion of this comedy comes from popular media which is fine but some references feel out of place and extremely forced. At some point UV creations is even referred to in one scene leaving me wondering why.
Also, I’m not sure if we can call OBB a ‘clean’ comedy given its liberal dosage of double entendres throughout with gags existing to pander to youth. But do we still think that sly sexual innuendoes a woman warning a man that she’ll cut his prawn and fry it qualify as humour? Or maybe this disappointment arises from my expectation mismatch since OBB is Sree Vishnu’s follow-up to Samajavaragamana which was a much cleaner family comedy thereby lending actor ‘family hero’ tag?
Sree Harsha Konuganti’s first two movies were heavily youth-oriented but in OBB, this “clean family-friendly” comedy clashes with the randy comedy for young adults. Therefore, you can’t really put OBB’s humor into one category there are lots of dirty jokes and also wordplay/slapstick stuff. While I wouldn’t say that they were distasteful so much as crude (some of them). On a horror level though, it works just fine with some hilarious sequences bringing these two sides together in the second half mostly. There are two sequences in particular with Priyadarshi and Rahul Ramakrishna each that are a riot.
The film is spoof-level zone for 90% of the time but takes a rather surprising turn towards its end. This makes you wonder if it’s really as profound as it’s trying to be when the film tries to be meaningful (no matter how progressive). It’s inconsistent and unconvincing without logics aside from being weird characters who have undergone many changes throughout the story which only makes its tagline look like a reverse-engineered defense mechanism to make up for its flaws.
Weird is just the word I would use to describe this movie; in fact this weirdness acts as both an attraction point and deterrent at once. The gags don’t always land but when they do work coupled with such great performances from leads who deliver them hilariously then not only does OBB become ridiculously funny but also provides some of funniest moments seen lately where logic matters little because laughs take over!
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