Film: Aavi Kumar
Director: K. Kaandeeban
Cast: Udaya, Kanika Tiwary, Nasser, Jagan, Munishkanth.
The film centres around a man called Aavi Kumar who has the psychic ability to see ghosts and speak to them. He gains popularity through a TV reality show where he interacts with ghosts. However, viewers take it as just another entertainment show. The story is about what happens when Kumar goes to Malaysia for a show and encounters the spirit of a girl in his apartment. The spirit, which is suffering from amnesia, hounds him to help her get to her past life. Kumar finds his life spiralling out of control.
The plot gives a sense of deja vu, with the whole scenario seeming familiar. The plot is a rehash of a couple of foreign flicks — something that has already been adapted in the Tamil screen. The first half takes inspiration from films like Ghost Town and The Frighteners (rehashed as Mass), and the latter half takes inspiration from Just Like Heaven that formed the plot of Endrendrum. A lack of original ideas and general laziness seem to be the bane of some Tamil filmmakers. Many a time, they seem to go for the same inspiration and the plots get repeated, with the makers not realising that those have been pre-empted by another!
Now, back to the film. Most of the story is set in Malaysia. The earlier moments promise some exciting ones ahead, but as the narration progresses, the screenplay takes a downswing, never to recover. When Aavi Kumar (Udaya) goes to Malaysia for his show, senior cop Mahendran (Nasser), amused by Kumar’s show, throws a challenge at him. He asks Kumar to use his so called psychic power and give them information related to the murder of a doctor. The scenes where Kumar interacts with spirits, are only mildly entertaining. The situations could have been crafted in a more interesting and engaging way.
Kumar, meanwhile, finds himself guided by some force when he rents an apartment for his short stay in Malaysia. He encounters Abhirami, a spirit (Kanika Tiwary), who asks him to leave her apartment. The duo fall for each other, she seeking his help to unearth her identity.
The screenplay is bland and the narration, unexciting. Kumar’s enquiry about the girl unearths some startling facts and a major scam, creating fear and panic among some higher ups. Jagan usually livens up the narration, but in the movie, as Kumar’s buddy, his antics are plainly jarring. Udaya is just about adequate. A little more effort and involvement in his role wouldn’t have harmed him. Debutante Kanika (she had essayed Hrithik Roshan’s sister in Agneepath) cuts a pretty picture.
The climax, set in a hospital from where Kumar tries to spirit away Abhirami, is a dismal messy scenario. When matters are heating up for the hero and his girl, the director thinks it the opportune time to force in an off colour comedy track of Munishkanth and Devadarshini. And then the cops, the hero and his cronies, the villains, and the comic pair all jump in the fray, fighting for space. A better sense of script selection would help Udaya strike the right chord in his career graph.