An aspiring writer who loses his father is in dire financial straits. When all seems lost his father’s lawyer brings to his notice of a villa in Pondicherry that was bought for him by his father but was abandoned and never revealed to him. Once the writer moves there, the Villa takes control of his life.
Language:
Tamil
Running Time:
102 mins
Rating:
U
Release date:
14 November 2013
Directed by:
Deepan Chakravarthy
Produced by:
C.V. Kumar
Written by:
Deepan Chakravarthy
Starring:
Ashok Selvan
Sanchita Shetty
Nassar
S. J. Surya
Music by:
Santhosh Narayanan
Shot by:
Deepak Kumar Padhy
Editing by:
Leo John Paul
Distributed by:
Studio Green

What’s Hot

  • The director’s research is evident when scientific explanations are given for a lot of commonly followed customs by the public. The positive energy & negative energy concept is interestingly presented. The story is also pretty good with neat twists.
  • The lead actors Ashok Selvan and Sanchita form a good pair and perform adequately. The supporting cast perform well especially the Ponraj & Devanesan characters.
  • The technical team has provided a solid foundation for the film. Mayan Ela deserves a special mention for haunting antique-styled villa filled with eerie paintings. The Cinematographer, Deepak also deserves a pat on the back for brilliant framing and experimentation with low-light shots.
  • The editor, Leo John Paul must be praised for bringing the film’s running time to 1 hr 40 mins. There are no unnecessary scenes whatsoever and even the songs occur only as montages. Santhosh Narayanan proves his mettle once again with his stunning work in BGM as well as the crisp songs. The movie is worth checking out in Dolby Atmos, due to the thumping sound design.

What’s Not

  • Even though the knot and the story seems really exciting on paper, it has not been translated into the script. Therefore even though the movie doesn’t have any dull moments it doesn’t have enough spikes to make it into a nail-biting thriller.
  • Ashok Selvan’s brooding demeanor robs him of many emotions which are essential when he encounters a harrowing time at the villa. This leads to the audience not being able to relate to the character’s struggles.
  • The climax seems really hurried and one wonders why the debutant director had to be over-smart with such an abrupt ending instead of taking some more screen-time to explain the events.

Badges

Verdict

Verdict Stamp

A classic case of a good story-line not translated into a convincing thriller script. There is however space for spawning a sequel out of this.