Aval (Tamil, 2017)

Siddharth‘s and Andrea’s chemistry on screen as the couple of Krish and Lakshmi was too electric to ignore, which benefited from wonderful quality couple moments that were written out for them. The playful chiding around the crush that Jenny had on Krish and the mature treatment provided to the subject was quite enjoyable. Anisha Victor’s performance as Jenny was surprisingly good for a debutant as she balanced the dual traits of a depressed girl possessed by a spirit and that a naughty teenager to good effect.

The director’s focus on the subject demands appreciation for he manages to maintain an air of suspense and gloom around the narrative without committing to falsities in order to deceive the viewers by introducing diversionary characters. The twist in the climax was quite out of the blue and well concealed till the end despite providing sneak peaks along the way. The religious references too were handled with excellent clarity in a non-provoking way and balanced perfectly.

The Exorcism sequence is definitely the USP of this movie and it isn’t an exaggeration to rate it as one of the best to feature in an Indian film! It’s not just the intensity of the performances that keeps the viewers on the edge, but that what-comes-next feel plays an equal part and the director ensures we can never predict the outcome.

The Special effects and Visuals complement the swift camera movements and razor quick editing to create that illusion of fear without the need for many jump scares. The make-up too looked impeccable and of high standards for many of the demonic outbursts that feature in the film, to make it genuinely scary to watch. In short, a showpiece technical performance that guarantees spine chilling moments to frighten the living wits out of any ordinary person!

After the mind blowing exorcism sequence to round up the first half, the second half’s quest for an equally powerful flashback falls flat as it drags around familiar territory of a celestial event holding the key to unlock the mystery. One could really never recover from that adrenaline blast at the interval – which in our opinion was worthy of a climax sequence and nothing the crew could do after that could match up to it.

While most of the cast looked adequate in their respective roles, we felt that the supporting characters played by Suresh as the psychiatrist and the pastor performing the exorcism along with Atul Kulkarni who plays the panic stricken and helpless father of a possessed teenager, deserved a bit more effort than what was put on show. Jenny’s sister and mother looked plastic in the climax especially, dampening the cast performance a touch.