Bakasura Restaurant Review: Worth Watching in Theatres or Wait for OTT?

Bakasura Restaurant Review: Bakasura Restaurant is directed by newcomer SJ Shiva. It is an ambitious attempt to blend horror and comedy in a quirky, supposedly around an abandoned house turned venture into dining. Starring Praveen and Viva Harsha, this film advertises itself as a “Hunger Comedy Entertainer,” the movie that promised laughs, frights, and originality when it hit theatres on the date of its launch, August 8, 2025, will it be all these things?

Story

Praveen wants to build a unique restaurant; this vision along with the wishes of his quartet of friends leads them to an old mysteriously weird house that appears to be the right place for their efforts. On the contrary, their desires unwittingly stir up a dark supernatural force connected to the place. What follows is a series of supposedly spooky but humorous events, battling supernatural events with personal phobias among the group.

Analysis

The concept of Bakasura Restaurant is quite interesting in itself: a supernatural element combined into the food business which is then merged with youth comedies. The execution; however, does not seem all that tasty. The film tends to oscillate from humor to horror too much and ends up falling flat through exaggerated slapstick or awkward staging of scares.

Praveen has a good sense of comic timing, and unfortunately, he has to bear most portions of this film all by himself without a proper script. Many jokes have poor timing or reused writing, causing the majority of them to fall flat. The little effort of Viva Harsha, Krishna Bhagavan, and Garuda Ram put to their characters is very much wasted because of one-dimensional characters issued by the script.

Visually, the film does not shine. The cinematographer by Bala Saraswathi appears to have coasted most of the time while the horror sequences are just not well lit and have been uninspired. The score by Vikas Badiga adds to the mood but is perceived to not match with what is happening on-screen.

What actually pulls down the film is the second half. It repeats so much that it becomes tiresome and cluttered. Scenes become aimless, and the “haunted house” doesn’t generate enough tension within for the audience to be kept hooked.

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