Noted filmmaker Rahul Yadav Nakka’s new film, Masooda starring Sangitha and Thiruveer in key roles has hit the screens today. Let’s see how it fares.

Story: Neelam( Sangitha) a single mother leads a struggling life with her daughter. Parallelly, Neelam’s rapport with her neighbour Gopi ( Thiruveer) will be showcased. Who is Gopi and what is his relationship with Neelam? How will Neelam and Gopi face circumstances when a ghost possesses, Neelam’s daughter Nazia(Bhandhavi)? What is the role of Masooda in the entire setup, forms the crucial crux.

Performances: Sangitha gave a natural performance in her single mother role. She tried to present the pain in her character nicely. Her screen presence elevates all the emotional scenes in the second half.

Thiruveer is fine in his key role. Though the young actor gave good performance throughout the film, he acting during the last twenty minutes in tensed scenes is too good.

Actress Surabhi Prabhavathi is alright in her role that gives a few leads in the crucial second half. Young beauty Kavya Kalyanram is glamorous on screen. Though her chemistry with the lead actor is good, Kavya got very less scope to performance in the film.

Senior actor Subhaleka Sudhakar is decent in his role as modern Peer Baba. Young girl Bhandhavi gave convincing performance in her key role. Rest of the artists such as Satyam Rajesh among others are fine in their respective roles.

Technicalities: The photography work by Nagesh Banell is impressive. The way he shot night effect scenes by using good framing and lighting setup is invisible on screen. Editing by Jesvin Prabhu is neat. He even kept the duration within limits by avoiding unwanted scenes.

The background score composed by Prashanth R Vihari is arresting. Especially, the sounding he used for all the horror scenes elevates the mood nicely. In one word, Prashanth’s score is major asset for the movie.

Production design is good as the backdrop has freshness in it. Production values for this tight budget movie are good.

Analysis: Sai Kiran Y directs Masooda. Though the film is his debut, Sai Kiran executed the film with proper clarity. While his writing is neat, the director succeed in presenting the horror genre in a different perspective. His on paper ideas are good and reflected the same on screen.

It is not that the first forty minutes of the film is bad but the proceedings during this time run on a slow note. Adding to it, establishment scenes during this time take sweet time as the setup with full impact will be created during the interval block.

To summerize, Masooda is largely engaging thriller that has enough horror elements to satisfy the targetted audience. While all the artists gave their best, director Sai Kiran’s detailing and point to narrative makes the film a satisfactory watch.

Verdict: Engaging horror thriller!

Rating: 2.5/5