Odela 2 Movie Review: Tamannaah Bhatia's Horror Film Becomes The Very Demon It Wants To Slay
Director Ashok Teja’s Odela 2 ventures into horror, where the rapist villain from the first part returns as a malevolent ghost.
Odela 2A
Odela 2 Movie Review: What if a malevolent ghost that targets women haunts a village, bringing everyone to their knees? When every solution fails, the responsibility to vanquish the monster falls on a supernaturally powerful woman. This premise serves as a brilliant metaphor for chauvinism and the fight against it.
I’m referring to Stree 2, which explored this theme in a fun, campy tone reminiscent of a young adult comic. Odela 2 could have followed that route—had it not indulged in a lecherous gaze toward women and a depraved depiction of sexual violence. It could also have mirrored Anushka Shetty’s Arundhathi, had it focused more on plot than on religious sermons. But Odela 2 ultimately devolves into a sadistic film that torments both its characters and the audience in its pursuit of a cathartic climax. While it aims to provoke disgust toward its villain, it ends up drawing that onto itself.
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Odela Railway Station, the first part, began with Radha (Hebah Patel) carrying the decapitated head of Tirupathi (Vasishtah Simha). The film then cut to the past, revealing a string of mysterious murders targeting young women. It concluded with Radha discovering that her husband Tirupathi was the serial rapist and murderer—and beheading him to end the carnage. In Odela 2, the story picks up with a schoolgirl, seemingly possessed, carrying Radha’s severed head. Once again, Ashok Teja takes us on a flashback journey to unravel the mystery behind this disturbing image.
After Tirupathi’s death, the villagers perform a forbidden ritual with his body to prevent him from attaining moksha, or spiritual liberation. They bury him alongside items like charcoal and chicken blood. The plan backfires. Tirupathi’s spirit begins possessing men who urinate on his grave—the film’s writing is so redundant that these men bleed while doing so in a similar fashion, allowing the spirit to take hold. The possessed men attend weddings, only to rape and murder brides in the most grotesque and violent ways imaginable.
One woman is scalped and raped. Another has a corn cob shoved in her mouth and is burned alive. Throughout, the camera lingers over their bodies with a voyeuristic gaze. This treatment extends to nearly every woman in the film the moment she enters the frame. The only woman spared this problematic lens is Shiva Shakthi (Tamannaah), a Naga Sadhu and the villagers’ last hope against Tirupathi’s ghost. But the respite doesn’t last long, as the climax is all about Tirupathi’s attempt to rape her as well.
Another major flaw with Odela 2 is its lack of entertainment value. Arundhathi, which the film clearly aspires to emulate, succeeded because it was driven by well-developed characters with real stakes. In contrast, Odela 2 undermines its own conflict by introducing omnipotent figures like the Hindu god Shiva. The moment such divine power enters the narrative, tension vanishes. Classic ‘Saami padams’ (Hindu mythological films) operated on a workable premise: gods appeared during moments of vulnerability, such as some weird Ammavaasai or Maha Surya grahanam, when dark forces had an upper hand. Odela 2 lacks even this dynamic. It doesn’t seem to decide what kind of movie it wants to be. It’s neither Arundhathi nor Amman. With its lecherous gaze and sadism, it ultimately becomes the very monster it set out to destroy.
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