Whenever there is a sin or a passionate love succumbs to untimely death, soul of those hurt, a person or a family, tend to roam around without crossing into the other realm. This is what our mythology, religion and common belief says regarding paranormal activity. Many rationals find it illogical but few things that are hard to pin point and explain happen throwing curveballs at our rational beliefs! If you happen to be a subject of such irregular, irrational, unworldly activity what would you do??
PLOT : One doctor named James travel long road and knock the door of Priya (Priyanka Upendra) as she asked his help to understand the paranormal activity in their house. The weird behavior of her 6 year old daughter Kriya ( Yuvina Parvathy) scares the family members to no bound. Her Grand mother and Mini Mom, mother’s sister Sneha (Aishwarya Shindogi) are also under threat. James talks to Kriya and realises there is a force in the house. He dies and Priya too is smacked hard on her head .. Who is this entity? What does it need? Watch the film for thrilling answers ..
Performances : Film depends on Kriya, Yuvina Parvathy to sell the idea of a girl truly being loved and seduced by a demonic entity and she acts really well. Priyanka Upendra showed her maturity and class in her performance as a pregnant woman suffering through trauma of losing her husband and trying to handle her six year old daughters shenanigans. As Priya she made us believe in the pain she is going through and let us scare with her for the proceedings. She suited the role more than one could expect.
Aishwarya Shindogi was used as an eye candy side character who shows off more than needed and looks extremely sensuous. She was perfect for her role and acting wise too she had some skills up her sleeve. Madhu as Father Mosis was believable as a priest and exorcist. His role did not have necessary impact during the end but he was pretty good whenever script demanded hum to be. Other actors did not spoil the mood created by cinematography, sound effects, RR and BGM.
Technicalities : Any horror movie needs sound Design, BG Score, Camera work to be in perfect sync and at high standards to make it believable for the audience. Here all these departments worked in tandem to achieve the desired thrills. Cinematography by HC Venu is very good and perfect to the tee. He used lights, darkness, flashlights, camera lenses, weird unpredictable angles to scare the audience right and they work big time.
RR and sound Design by the sound mixing department was quite commendable. BG Score by Aganeesh Lokhnath was really haunting and while you’re in a theatre with good equipment you will understand how the wavelength changes let you oscillate like a pendulum to and fro in your seats. He understands the loudness and silences very well. VFX was not that top notch considering the budget it is excusable and the practical effects were used to well effect. The film suffers from lag and drag mainly in the second hour and makes the audience member feel least invested as the story doesn’t move after a point. Editor should have taken care of these issues as the scares and pay offs were well edited yet the story never moves after it establishes characters.
Writer Director Lohith H appears to have great knowledge over staging, build up and pay off of a scare but he heavily relies on jump scares rather than innovation. There are movies like Don’t Breathe, Conjuring, Lights Out, Oculus, Bhooth that innovate and introduce new points to the story and run towards a conclusion rather than establishing and re-establishing the same point over and over again for about an hour and half. Once you were able to establish the present situation of terror automatically human brain would want to jump back to present to know what happens next rather than pondering on a pointless past. If past was dedicated to establish strong connection, bond between the demon and child, mother and child, may be you could have invested yourself into it but after a point scares seem pointless as everything that you feel happening ends as a dream. A plot needs movement over stagnation for an audience member to invest his time into it.
Analysis : Movie main plot appears to be heavily inspired from Mama movie but the story lacks the same connect and intensity. Staging a scare is difficult but any good horror doesn’t just stage a scare and then conclude as if someone asked it to. It needs to move along build the finishing point step by step. This film even though well executed lacks that factor big time. Still it is one time watchable for all those scary movie lovers who want their weekend to be scary fun. It could have been much much better if it had sticked to basics and innovate upon that, but it gets basics right and then falls of a cliff taking itself too seriously.
Rating : 2/5
