Harom Hara , the Telugu film written and directed by Gnanasagar Dwaraka, gets its title from the ‘harom hara’ chants of devotees to their favourite deity Subramanya swamy or Murugan in Kuppam, Chittoor district. The central character, Subramanyam ( Sudheer Babu ), is nearly worshipped by the locals after he takes on the goons. The period setting — a few decades ago in Chittoor — brings back memories of Pushpa and the presence of Sunil accentuates it.
There is also a KGF -style plot point of an outsider becoming people’s saviour. Here, it is the father who encourages him to make a lot of money. How far can this Pushpa -meets- KGF style of narrative work? Until the oversized guns, which have become a cliche, are used in key action sequences.
The film opens with a confrontation between a police officer (Akshara Gowda) investigating Subramanyam’s (Sudheer Babu) illegal gun manufacturing and trading and Palani (Sunil), a cop who is also Subramanyam’s accomplice. While she argues that an illegal gun trader cannot be revered going by mob mentality, he narrates how he took on the rakshasas — the political and criminal nexus. The initial portions carefully build the world of Harom Hara .
Arvind Viswanathan’s camera often captures Kuppam on rain-soaked days, with the blue-grey skies adding to the brooding atmosphere. Familiar tropes come into play. Farmlands are usurped, women are exploited and anyone who dares to question is murdered.
Many inhabitants have left the r.