Viraatapalem PC Meena Reporting Series Review: A bland, albeit occasionally engaging, social thriller

Viraatapalem: PC Meena Reporting, the latest Telugu web series that premiered on June 27, doesn’t have tall ambitions. Catering to an audience that’s already accustomed to investigative thrillers set in rural backdrops, the series collects a bunch of cliches, concocting a familiar universe and plot — it’s the story of a sincere outsider grappling with a world far removed from scientific reasoning. Viraatapalem is a village existing under the self-burden of superstitious beliefs, fuelled by an incident years ago. As a result, no wedding has taken place in the village for almost 7 years. 

Director: Poluru Krishna

Cast: Abhignya Vuthaluru, Charan Lakkaraju, Lavanya Sahukara, Ramaraju, Gowtham Raju, and Surabhi Prabhavathi

Streaming on: Zee 5

The show’s barebones treatment often comes in its way — for a story about a village where paths cross more often than in an urban setting, the village of Viraatapalem comes off as strangely vacuous and devoid of a realistic interpersonal terrain, disjointed in its portrayal of the village and its many social classes. The other characters around our protagonist, Constable Meena (Abhignya), do not seem to belong to the same universe as her, coming off as befuddlingly atonal when considering the show’s intense premise. There is a pleasant revelation about Kittu (Charan Lakkaraju) in the second episode, followed by the unravelling of a darker secret that doesn’t add anything to the proceedings.

The little good work done on the conceptual level, however, is undone by director Poluru Krishna. Despite an occasional scene with interesting camerawork by cinematographer Ram K Mahesh or intriguing background music by Mihiraamsh, Viraatapalem is largely unappealing on the execution level. The director fails to build a sense of escalating tension or higher stakes as we dig deeper into the show. Despite Meena’s clear struggle on the paper, her inner turmoil never becomes palpable on screen. Meena’s ideological conflict with other villagers could have been fleshed out as a more potent plot point and the driving force of the narrative. Unfortunately, the series is devoid of any such dramatic exploration and remains plot-driven instead of turning its focus on characters. Abhignya Vuthaluru commands great screen presence playing the protagonist and carries the show on her shoulders despite a weakly-etched character. The rest of the actors, unfortunately, are not up to mark.

What largely keeps the show going is how the writers Vikram Kumar Kandimalla and Divya Tejaswi Pera manage to maintain an air of mystery at the core that leads the audience to have only one question on their mind — ‘Who is the culprit behind all the gruesome deaths?’ There is also a good, surprising moment in episode three, as protagonist Meena decides to raise the stake, putting her own life in danger to solve the case. The moment takes you aback because of its placement as a mid-point conflict, instead of being channelled as the final act of courage from the steely yet struggling protagonist. The episodes are timed at 20 minutes, which helps it have a sense of pace. The climactic revelation too works for its element of surprise. 

Predominantly set in the early 90s, the series vaguely establishes the time period through its use of visual props like film posters. However, this is another tiring element about the OTT landscape, where relevant socio-political elements like class divide are often dealt with a light hand under the garb of a period setting — Viraatapalem could easily have been set in present times, except the makers consciously chose to play safe and hence fall prey to another cliche.  You wonder if the makers will attempt to offer any social commentary. The series comes the closest to it in the second episode, where a marginalised character tries to fetch drinking water for herself, struggling to find help from a village that has another reason to ostracise her now. However, for the rest of its course, the series makes no attempt to explore something familiar or unique. In totality, Viraatapalem: PC Meena Reporting remains a generic investigative thriller, with a few impressive moments, but nothing new to offer.