Sangili Bungili Kadhava Thorae (Tamil, 2017)

Debutant writer-director Ike needs to be lauded for filming his own interpretation of familiar horror tropes of jump scares and sudden shifts in background music. In spite of being a horror comedy, the film takes quite a long while to actually confirm to everyone that there is a ghost in the house.

In spite of possessing good looks and talent in abundance, Jiiva has been perennially been in average to bad projects with his last good year being 2013 where he had 2 releases in David and Endrendrum Punnagai. This project seems to be one his better ones in the recent past with Jiiva showing his adeptness at comedy, and emotions with panache adding immense value to the role.

The senior actors Radhika, Kovai Sarala and Radharavi add vital emotions to the script in spite of the relatively short screen time for each of them. It is lovely to see Kovai Sarala being given some sane dialogues and not being used as a lunatic for the whole of a horror comedy.

The film has a great quality overall with Sathyan Sooryan’s shot composition and innovative camera angles within the bungalow, working to the favor of the script. The scene where Devadarshini’s voice is heard from the kitchen has been shot and edited excellently giving the viewers a terrific jolt.

The artwork and costumes too warrants a mention. Sri Divya looks lovely in all her attires.  Lalgudi Ilayaraja’s imagination of the haunted bungalow in wonderful too.

Apart from the wig, there seems to be very little change in Soori’s role in this film to numerous similar films that he has been part of. He is in dire need of reinventing himself and in fact the one good laugh that he was able to extract from the audience was when he resorted to the good old ‘Parotta’ angle.

The love track with Sri Divya seems utterly uninspired and in spite of a good looking fresh pair, there is absolutely no imagination to the writing and it seems like a wasted opportunity in spite of their marriage being a key element in the turn of events.

With a predictable flashback and an even more predictable climax, the film could have done with a faster, breathless climax replacing the current one which drags endlessly totally frustrating the audience.