Director Sundar C would always carry a minimum guarantee tag along with him and that has worked out wonders in the past as it would readily give him an excellent opening with a “wholesome family entertainer” label. Basically he has made his impressions with sitcoms with many sensational comedians at various point in time. Here comes a comedy horror film from his stable that hosts an ensemble cast which has become a regular phenomenon in most of his recent films.
The story revolves around a palace that is possessed with a girl’s spirit. Obviously the spirit has a reason for it’s vengeance. The family members in the palace are being harassed by the spirit and the obvious reason which is anybody’s guess gets revealed during the climax. The irrational proceedings like the spell against the demons, god-men being flown over to get rid of the spirit, the powerful ‘pooja', etc. towards the climax were scarier than the ghostly deeds as it has pushed back movie making by a decade.
Riddled with cliches that is usually associated with a horror movie, the only thing that made the movie tick was director Sundar’s packaging laced with a great sense of situational humor. The ensemble cast and the supporting cast were perfectly tuned to their strengths, made to slip in their roles and were pitched in with an excellently programmed screenplay that gave rise to an engaging narrative. Thus the cliches got masqueraded in the process and the humor quotient thrived big time.
Among the cast, Santhaanam after a brief hiatus lead the fray, followed by Manobala (whose episode just gave me tears and made my tummy ache out of laughter), Swaminathan and ‘Kovai’ Sarala, in that order. The leads were just used to support the storyline - but the voice over of Andrea and Vinay (who has dubbed on his own) questions the nativity of the dialogs. Even Lakshmi Rai’s voice over sounded much better. Hansika, this time as the demon appeared in a brief cameo during the flashback and has done her usual bubbly stuff with an awry lip sync. Sundar C as the ‘pathfinder’ did a good job and anchored the cast.
Apart from the cliches in the screenplay, the movie drew a lot of parallels to ‘Chandramukhi’. Right from the story being set in a palace, the heroine getting possessed by the ghost, Sundar C being the pathfinder (an equivalent of Rajni - he even wears a specs like Rajni) and even Santhaanam's comedy (an equivalent of Vadivelu’s) - everything looked so familiar. But as long as a film entertains and audience burst out laughing, these things hardly matter; at least that seems to be the current mantra in Kollywood!!
Verdict: Above Average Laugh Riot!
Rating: 2.5 / 5
.jpg)