To weave a script with just two characters in the frame for the most part, and that too confined to the inside of a bunglow, is not an easy task. The director duo of Rosario and Maheshwaran (the latter is the film’s scenarist and producer too), have created such a scenario in their debut venture Edhuvum Nadakkum.
And the debutants have managed to keep the audience hooked to the screen for the most part, through a fast-paced narrative laced with suspense and thrill.
The story opens with Pooja arriving from Singapore to her grandpa’s bungalow at a hill station, intending to give him a surprise.
But finding him not at home, she lets herself in, and calls her grandpa about it. The old man is a on a trip to visit a sage at his cave. The sage prophesies an impending death at his bungalow, and urges him to return home. Pooja’s grandpa is skeptical as Naga, his young caretaker and the only occupant of the bungalow is away. Naga is a passionate, small time theater actor and is on one of his acting assignments.
The youth however is forced to return, thanks to Swarna, his nagging wife (we get to hear only her voice). While Pooja’s unexpected arrival fills her grandpa with a sense of foreboding, Naga’s return allays his fears about the sage’s prophecy turning true. Meanwhile, Pooja and Naga decide to play a game of makebelieve to ward away boredom.
Naga would play himself, and Pooja would enact Swarna. As the duo get into the act and enjoy the spontaneous heated verbal duel, matters take a serious turn. Pooja realises that it could well be a game of life and death for her.
It’s an engagingly narrated tale of a disturbed mind exorcising its demons, and about a playful game gone awry. An eerie, bizarre feel is maintained throughout.
There are no doubt some flaws, and overdone are the shots of floating clouds and an ominous looking moon.
Bringing out the terror and helplessness of Pooja with conviction is debutante Aparna Nair. Kartik Kumar, a competent stage and film actor, gets to reveal a new dimension to his performance here. As Naga, who shuttles between illusion and reality, he is apt for the role. The only hitch is that the film is uncannily similar in plot, incidents and characters to the Telugu film Show (2002), which incidentally had won the national award for best screenplay.