Kishkindhapuri is a 2025 Telugu-language horror mystery thriller written and directed by Koushik Pegallapati. The film has Bellamkonda Sreenivas & Anupama Parameswaran playing the lead roles while Sandy, Hyper Aadi, Sudharshan, Prema, Tanikella Bharani, Makarand Deshpande, Srikanth Iyyengar, Bhadram, Dhana Lakshmi & others are seen in important supporting roles. The music is composed by Chaitan Bharadwaj while the film is produced by Sahu Garapati under Shine Screens banner.
Story:
Raghav (Bellamkonda Sai Sreenivas) and Mythili (Anupama Parameswaran) are in love. Both of them work in a special company that takes people to haunted places and organizes ghost-hunting trips.
One day, their team takes up a mission of going in to a new haunted place. As part of this, they enter an old, mysterious mansion named “Suvarna Maya”. Inside the house, they come across strange happenings, including a ghostly presence that communicates through a radio.
Later, something terrifying begins to happen— as one by one, every member who entered the place starts dying in shocking ways. What is the reason behind these deaths? Who is that ghost? Why is it haunting the mansion? And how Raghav solves this mystery needs to be seen in the film.
What about on-screen performances?
Bellamkonda Sai Srinivas fits well into the role and delivers an excellent performance. He does all the lengthy shots with natural ease and carries the action sequences with confidence.
Anupama Parameswaran is really good in the film, and she balances fear, vulnerability, and strength with ease. She handles even the tough and emotional scenes quite well, too.
Sandy Master is impressive as the main villain. He suits the part well and gives out an appreciable performance in a very peculiar role. But his role could’ve been used more effectively in the plot.
Hyper Aadi is funny & quite effective in his couple of scenes in the first half, but he is not there all through the film. While Sudharshan who is there all through the film gives out a fine act with his typical comedy.
Prema, Tanikella Bharani, Makarand Deshpande, Srikanth Iyyengar, Bhadram, Dhana Lakshmi & all others are adequate in their limited parts.
What about off-screen talents?
The story by Koushik Pegallapati lacks novelty with a very familiar plot that resembles quite a few horror films that have come in the recent past, like “Raju Gari Gadhi” & “Geethanjali”.
The screenplay, too, is pretty weak and follows the typical horror film template where a group of people goes into a haunted place, a few jump scares, the heroine gets possessed, a small clichéd backstory, and the hero solves everything towards the end. Except for a few twists here and there, most of the film runs on a predictable note.
The film starts off with a decent flashback scene and gets into the present by establishing the world and its characters neatly. But as the film heads to the interval, it falls into a very sub-standard zone with a routine horror template, offering nothing new. Even the interval block lacks the expected high.
The second half is slightly better. The backstory of the villain is interesting. Once, we enter the 30-40 minutes portion before climax, things appear at random rather than organically building to it like the unnecesary action blocks with middling VFX. The ending is quite regular and predictable, while the lead to the potential sequel doesn’t excite much.
Director Koushik Pegallapati does a fair job with his presentation, but he could not bring in the freshness that he had in his debut film, “Chaavu Kaburu Challaga”. The writing is where the film falters and this can be seen sometimes in the way the scenes are executed too. Also, the unwanted regular commercial elements should’ve been avoided.
The dialogues are overly written. The heavy word-driven lines do not leave any impact on the proceedings. It infact irritates us a bit coz of the complexity of words used.
The cinematography by Chinmay Salaskar adds a strong layer to the film’s atmosphere. He uses dark lighting and shadowy frames effectively to bring out the tension and fear in every scene.
The songs by Chaitan Bharadwaj are forgettable. None of the tracks registered in the film or after coming out. But the background score is impressive, and the sound design deserves a special mention.
The edit by Niranjan Devaramane is underwhelming. There are many places where the scenes could’ve been even crisper.
The artwork by Manisha A. Dutt is effective, while the VFX/CGI looked below par in a few key action bits in the second half and also in a few scenes involving animals.
The production values by Shine Screens are good.
What’s Hot?
* Bellamkonda Sreenivas’s Performance
* Anupama Parameswaran’s Performance
* Sandy’s Performance As Villain
* Couple Of Comedy Scenes Of Hyper Aadi
* Sound Design & Background Score
* Cinematography & Production Values
What’s Not?
* Familiar & Unexciting Plot
* Weak Screenplay With Routine Scenes
* Forced Commercial Elements & Fights
* Lacks Proper High Moments
* Ordinary First Half
* Unwanted Songs
Verdict: Overall, Kishkindhapuri offers a few good moments with decent performances and some well-shot horror sequences, but it doesn’t fully rise above the routine. With predictable narration and underutilized potential, it ends up as an average watch.
Telugubulletin.com Rating: 2.5/5