September 28, 2015

Another weekend and yet another horror film. And so, we get ready to be scared but Unakkenna Venum Sollu is largely bland, repeating tropes that we have seen in almost every other horror film to make us cower in fear. Jump scares, lonely and large bungalows, kids, rain, power cuts, lonely apartment corridors, doors closing with a bang, no lights, slow tracking shots, scary-looking toy, quirky exorcist... we get them all, but they hardly have any … read the rest.

Another weekend and yet another horror film. And so, we get ready to be scared but Unakkenna Venum Sollu is largely bland, repeating tropes that we have seen in almost every other horror film to make us cower in fear. Jump scares, lonely and large bungalows, kids, rain, power cuts, lonely apartment corridors, doors closing with a bang, no lights, slow tracking shots, scary-looking toy, quirky exorcist... we get them all, but they hardly have any effect. Perhaps, this has to do with horror fatigue — for the endless stream of horror movies have definitely sensitized us to the obvious scare tactics, but mostly, it has to do with an unconvincing script and lifeless dialogues and line readings that make scenes unintentionally funny (the entire theatre bursts out laughing when a doctor says, "Gaucher is a rarest of rare disease"). The constant intercutting between the different strands in the plot, which should have made the film all the more tense, actually does the opposite because it is done in jerky fashion with no feel for the material. As Maya showed us last week, it takes a filmmaker with a vision and technique to even make us care.

The premise does look promising — on paper, at least. Pooja (Deepak Paramesh) and Karthik (Jaqlene Prakash), a live-in couple, break-up and the pregnant Pooja, who gives birth to a child, chooses to give it way. The baby, which is adopted by Judy, a psychologically disturbed woman, dies the same night, but returns as a ghost to demand justice from its parents for abandoning it. But director Srinath Ramalingam ruins it with ineffective scenes and illogical characterization. Take for example the main reason behind the breakup. Pooja wants Karthik to get a job after he is given the pink slip at his current office; he decides to go to Singapore to get a job, and she thinks he's irresponsible because he is leaving her alone to face her pregnancy! We actually end up symapthising more with the ghost, Daisy (Anu), because she doesn't deserve such parents.

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