Kishkindhapuri Review: A Riveting Rural Thriller

The plot kicks off with Raghav (Bellamkonda Srinivas), a perpetually broke tour guide, who assembles a ragtag group of thrill-seekers for a “ghost walking tour” of Kishkindhapuri, a decrepit radio station rumored to be haunted. The party includes Mythili (Anupama Parameswaran), a skeptical journalist; Sumit (Nellore Sudharshan), a loud-mouthed influencer; Vihari (Hyper Adhi), a comic relief sidekick; and Visravaputra (Sandy), a mysterious local priest. Their exploration inadvertently awakens the spirit of a woman who died in a fire decades ago, and soon the group is trapped in the station, fighting for their lives. Director Koushik Pegallapati weaves in a subplot about Swamiji (Makrand Deshpande), a fraud exorcist, and Bhushan Verma (Tanikella Bharani), a greedy real estate developer, but these threads feel tacked-on. The story barrels toward a revelation about the spirit’s past - involving betrayal and a lost child - but the emotional payoff is undercut by inconsistent pacing.

From the opening shot of the radio station’s rusted antenna against a blood-orange sky, you sense the film’s visual ambition. Cinematographer Sri Karthik (uncredited in the provided metadata but notable) captures the eerie industrial decay with moody lighting and tight corridors that amplify claustrophobia. The sound design, too, deserves mention - creaking floorboards, a faint sitar melody, and static bursts from dead microphones create an authentically unsettling atmosphere. The problem is that director Koushik Pegallapati can’t decide if he’s making a horror film or a comedy.

Bellamkonda Srinivas tries hard as Raghav, but his character is written as a bumbling everyman, not a horror lead. He’s asked to deliver deadpan one-liners one minute and scream in terror the next, and the transitions feel forced. Anupama Parameswaran anchors the film as Mythili, bringing a grounded skepticism that the narrative needs, but her arc is truncated - she’s reduced to a damsel in distress by the third act. The real standout is Nellore Sudharshan as Sumit, whose over-the-top influencer antics (livestreaming the ghost hunt, fake crying for clicks) land as sharp satire. Hyper Adhi provides reliable comic relief, though his jokes sometimes overstay their welcome.

The horror sequences are a mixed bag. There’s a genuinely tense scene where the group gathers around a dead radio, and the spirit whispers through it in fragmented words - your skin will crawl. But too often, the scares are cheap jump scares: a loud door slam, a cat leaping from a cabinet, a ghost face appearing in a mirror for the third time. The vengeful spirit’s design is effective (charted skin, hollow eyes, a sari that billows unnaturally), but she’s underused. The film hints at a deeper backstory involving a colonial-era radio broadcast, but it’s explained in a rushed monologue by Sandy’s character.

The comedy, meanwhile, feels like it was written by a different team. Sumit’s antics and Vihari’s bickering with Raghav occasionally produce genuine laughs - the scene where they try to lock a ghost out with a wooden chair that’s already broken is perfectly timed. But the tonal swing from slapstick to gore (there’s a surprisingly graphic death involving a torn throat) is jarring. The drama, meant to come from Mythili’s backstory - a lost sister - feels emotionally unearned, as if the script cut essential scenes. Tanikella Bharani and Makrand Deshpande are wasted in roles that exist solely to pad the runtime.

Pros

• Strong atmospheric cinematography and sound design create legitimate tension in isolated moments.
• Nellore Sudharshan delivers a breakout comedic performance that elevates the middle act.
• The premise - a ghost walking tour in an abandoned radio station - is original and promising.
• A few genuinely inventive horror beats (whispering through static, a possessed microphone) stand out.

Cons

• Tonal inconsistency leaves the film feeling like three separate movies stitched together.
• Bellamkonda Srinivas is miscast; his comedic timing clashes with the horror demands.
• The script is overcrowded with underdeveloped subplots and unnecessary characters.
• Scares rely too heavily on jump scares, diminishing the atmosphere built by the earlier scenes.
• The emotional payoff is rushed and fails to connect, making the climax feel hollow.

“Kishkindhapuri” is a film that tries to do too much and ends up doing justice to none of its ambitions. It’s not a bad movie - there are flashes of brilliance, a committed performance from Nellore Sudharshan, and a visually striking setting - but it’s deeply uneven. Horror fans will find a few chills, comedy fans will get some laughs, but neither will feel fully satisfied. For Telugu cinema, this is a step forward in genre experimentation but a step sideways in execution. If you’re in the mood for a disjointed thrill ride that you can dissect with friends over chai, give it a stream. Otherwise, let the spirit of this radio station stay buried. Final Score: 5.5/10 - watchable but forgettable.