Aranmanai

My review: Aranmanai

Only way to sit through Sunder.C's "Aranmanai" is to make peace with yourself that you are actually watching the 1970's-80's horror movies that used to get telecast in Raj digital plus on a lazy weekday afternoons when you are just back from your school. Just forget about the effort that you have put in or the money you have spent to watch this movie on big screen which it clearly doesn't deserve. 

But even if you compare it with the 70's-80's standards, movies of those times however tacky they look, they usually have actors who perform their best and succeed in making the viewers forget the insipidities on the prowl. The makers know when to unleash the horror, when to go it slow and when to break all hell loose. But "Aranmanai" is a case of poor scripting, lazy direction and below-par acting. There is not even a single scene where the viewers gets surprised or terrorized, the most bare essential of any horror movie. When horror element itself doesn't work, then the whole movie which is built on its basis falls apart. 

The movie is predictable to the core, right from the first scene till the last frame where they sow seed for a sequel. A ghost who is lovelorn, lover who is happily married, the possessed wife, savior of the family who tries all his might to overcome the evil designs of the ghost, the group of villains who are the reason why a timid village belle turn into a ghost and their gory deaths at the hands of it, a religious seer and a devotional song, whatever horror movie cliches you can think of are all present in this movie. As a result, the movie fails to makes any impact on its viewers. 

Only aspect that keeps the viewers seated in the auditorium is the comical aspects in the movie. Santhanam does succeeds to an extent in keeping the viewers in good humor with his typical sarcastic timing comedy. The flashback scenes too add up to the comedy with a clean shaven Vinay and trying to act Hansika. Andrea tries her maximum in the horror sequences, but her paucity of talent is evident in most of the other sequences. 

Bharadwaj seems to have got caught in the time warp too for all the songs are of the b-grade 70's-80's standards. Karthik Raja's background score does nothing in accentuating the horror, rather it is an ear-sore.  Technically movie is tacky and doesn't belong to the 2014's. 

On the whole, "Aranmanai" is a very poorly and lazily made horror movie sans any horror. Santhanam's usual comedy and many unintended comedies may keep you in your seats, but it is too trivial a movie to merit a viewing in a cinema theater.        

Bottomline:  a dilapidated palace. 

1.5/5