Ohmkar's brother Ashwin Babu created a niche for himself by doing different genres of thought-provoking films. His film Hidimbha generated interest with a unique title and the teaser and trailer increased the curiosity levels. The film directed by Anil Kanneganti is releasing on 20 July 2023. The film's OTT rights are yet to be finalised and streaming will be after the end of its theatrical run. Let us see what Hidimbha offered to movie lovers.
Hidimbha's story is all about missing women and how cops unraveled the mystery which has a historical touch. Investigative Officer Aadhya (Nandita Shwetha) is roped in to solve the missing women cases in the city of Hyderabad after local cops failed to make any headway. With CM Ramachandra Rao (Subhalekha Sudhakar) increasing the pressure, DGP Sanjay Kumar (Sanjay Swaroop) bestows Aadhya to take charge with the support of police officer Abhay (Ahwin Babu). Where this leads to, what is the connection between Vetti (Makarand Deshpande), Karthik (Rajeev Kanakala) CMD Karthik Hospitals, cops Tilak (Ajay Rathnam), Duryodhan (Raghu Kunche) form the rest of the story.
Ashwin Babu surprises all with his transformation. He looked macho in his physique and he worked hard to completely change his personality. He did well as the cop though he came up with uni-dimensional expressions. He should have shown more intensity and emotions in the flashback. He enacted high-octane and breathtaking stunts with ease much to the surprise of her fans. His dialogue delivery is good.
Nanditha Shwetha is fine in the role of a cop and as the superior. She showed the right kind of body language and emoted well showing her frustrations apply on the screen. Makarand Deshpande looked menacing and wreaked fear among viewers. He did not have many dialogues but his acts and expressions on the screen made a powerful impact.
Others like Subhalekha Sudhakar, Srinivas Reddy, Ajay Rathnam, Raghu Kunche, Sanjay Swaroop, and Chatrapathi Sekhar performed according to the roles.
Hidimbha story penned by Aneel Kanneganti is a psycho thriller. Aneel started the narration in an interesting manner and continued in the same vein. The investigation starts increasing the curiosity but at times, the makers lost the plot. The investigation and finding the murder motive scenes increase the curiosity levels. The interval block is good.
Aneel Kannegati included a few twists here and there to attract the attention of all. The first half ends on a sedate note and the director also included intense action blocks. Interest levels are maintained even across the country. The second half however drifts apart with the lengthy flashback episode. Though Aneel tried to increase the curiosity levels including a historic angle and also a surprising twist, the gory scenes and brutality shown put off the viewers.
Despite a few limitations, Aneel used his creativity and included all those events and incidents he heard about and which were never referred to in the history books to come up with an interesting and intriguing thriller. While he concentrated the first half on the investigative angle and tried to highlight why the killer started kidnapping the women and connected the lines with the parameters and pattern, he concentrated on the gruesome flashback in the second half. The introduction to the Hidimbha world leaves all shellshocked. The unexpected twist in the story takes the narration to another level.
Apart from Aneel delighted all the fans by showing Ashwin Babu in a macho and rugged look and he also made him flex his muscles and showcase his biceps while bashing the baddies. Dialogues are interesting, and thought-provoking, and increased curiosity levels.
Vikas Badisa's music is youthful and situational. A couple of songs are romantic. The background score made an impact but at times it turned out to be loud. However, he increased the intensity levels with his background music. The re-recording and sound mixing gave a new experience to the viewers. Rajasekhar's cinematography is good. It is in sync with the story. He used the lighting effect to good use to make an impact. MR. Varma's editing could have been better, especially in the second half. Production values of Sri Vignesh Karthik Cinemas, AK. Entertainments, Oak Entertainments are good.
Altogether Hidimbha is an intense, intriguing, and brutal crime thriller. Aneel Kanneganti tried to show Ashwin Babu in a different thriller. Ashwin Babu transformed his looks and enacted high-octane stunts to surprise his fans and movie lovers. Aneel came up with a never seen before and heard of the story and managed to generate interest with surprising twists and turns. His screenplay is racy and he made sure that the suspense continued till the end with his direction. It has to be seen how the brutal and gruesome scenes in the movie will be received by the viewers. A little bit of fine-tuning of the script and adding more emotional values and connections would have powered Hidimbha to new heights. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 2.75 Rating for Hidimbha.