Indian spooky cinema has a typical
Physics of its own. Fortunately this dares to move substantially from the
predictable style of narration, albeit substantially. It further offers an
interesting twist tot the tale at the tail. The 120 odd minutes film is crisp
also but that not withstanding is not a perfect film and there are moments when
you shift more often in your seat than towards the edge which is the litmus
test to a film of the genre.
The haunt as you move tale is told substantially in the dark – a given textual
alibi for the ghost tales of our cinema and our mind sets. Notice how Devils
and ghosts are nocturnal, rest during the day and often leave no trace of their
activity in the morn!!
A Pizza delivery boy Michael (Vijay Sethupathy) has a live-in relationship with
Anu (Ramya Nambeesan) who is working on a ghost fiction work. While she has the
theory in place, he questions the credibility. The live-in relationship is an
interesting premise in our cinema. It starts with a presumption and makes for
interesting observation in our social milieu. His boss Shanmugam’s (Naren) one
day sends him on an errand to his house when he notices that his daughter is
possessed. When the Exorcist asks her the cause for her anger she shifts an
angry glance at the pizza delivery boy. On another occasion he gets locked in a
home that is obviously haunted. He witnesses multiple murders and just cannot
get away from the home.
The ghost haunts him, his friends are injured, his fiancé goes missing, the
police step in only to know that earlier there have been victims in the haunted
house. A substantial portion of the film is shot in the haunted house and the
happenings. Here the film maker Karthik Subbaraj does fall to the usual clichés
of the genre. The film maker would well have chosen to deal with happenings
outside to substantiate the tale. The film’s major failure is its incapacity to
keep its short narration crisp. The meandering of the script juxtapositioned
with its racy pace in the final moments is perhaps its undoing. For a long
while it moves in leisure and in retrospect in irrelevance. As it heads to the
finale it moves in spurts to reveal its conclusions in a jiffy. This makes the
pizza an improperly cooked end product.
Haunting music has been the mainstay of this kind of cinema. Recall how a Madan
Mohan gave life to Woh Kaun Thi, Meera Saaya and others to films like Anita,
Mahal and the like. It must be said that the film has a wonderful back ground
score that does not screech to frighten but some where the music does not
return to haunt.
The main cast has characters walking in with the air of an amateur called upon
to deliver his/her lines before the camera. Vijay Sethupathy has a role that
requires him singularly to take the film forward. He lacks the cinematic
charisma. He does his best. This surely falls short of the entire scheme of
things.
This pizza delivery is driven by a proper timing but the taste quotient is
suspect. The final product does not leave the best taste.
L. Ravichander.