May 15, 2016

Jithan-2 involves a ghost and is billed as a horror movie, but the only thing that haunts us after seeing the film — and might even result in sleepless nights — is an unending stream of questions.

Why does the film's protagonist (named Surya and played by Jithan Ramesh) have photos of Alfred Hitchcock in his house? Why does the ghost — which clearly doesn't want him there — never seriously harm him? Why does it look like someone who has draped… read the rest.

Jithan-2 involves a ghost and is billed as a horror movie, but the only thing that haunts us after seeing the film — and might even result in sleepless nights — is an unending stream of questions.

Why does the film's protagonist (named Surya and played by Jithan Ramesh) have photos of Alfred Hitchcock in his house? Why does the ghost — which clearly doesn't want him there — never seriously harm him? Why does it look like someone who has draped a black blanket all over themselves to escape Kodaikanal's winter? Why does she — yes, it is a female ghost (played by Srushti Dange) — suddenly become visible to Surya after remaining invisible for long?

Why does the film keep repeating the same scene — of characters getting into the house and being scared off by the ghost for almost its entire duration? Why does it have a kuthu song popping up out of the blue? Why does it have all the actors barring Ramesh enter and exit the story in random fashion? Why does Karunas's voice sound dubbed in some scenes?

Why does the director take over an hour and a half to get into the story? Why does scene after scene go on and on with no end in sight? Why does the director think that he can get his audience's attention just by making references to Ajith and Vijay? Why does the film never display even a tiny bit of imagination in trying to scare us or making us laugh or feel for the characters' plight? Why does even the ghost's backstory come across as something juvenile and laughable?

Why does the film begin with a scene involving Ramesh's character from the first film and then never bothers with it afterwards? Why does this lazy effort bear the title Jithan-2, when it has not even a passing similarity with the first film, save for the fact that it stars the same actor? Why does the film industry keep underestimating the audience and think that it can get bums on the seats just by slapping the title of a previously released film onto a new one?

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