Iruttu (2019)

Please haunt me, tonight...please...

I shall come out straight and declare that Tamil film industry, in my book, can’t, for nuts that squirrels stash away, make a horror flick.

The last time I ever got scared watching a Tamil film was somewhere in the early 80s watching Sigappu Rojakkal on TV. The garden scene, the frickin’ black cat, and not to mention, the psychotic Kamal, scared the shit outta little me.

Then, there was Yavarum Nalam (2009), which relied heavily on its lead, Madhavan’s performance to give us the scare. I felt uneasy, not scared, but then again, take Madhavan out and put some amateur, and the movie would sucks llama’s balls.

I suppose that is what seemed to be lacking in this film. I can imagine how it would have worked if Madhavan himself was the lead here. Sunder C. is a fine genre hack. But he seemed to be not interested most of the time. Nothing here seemed to be working….except…except…

….I have a confession…I fell in love with the frickin Ghost herself, played by Sai Dhanshika. Man, she’s not only gorgeous, she has that certain exotic eeriness that makes you feel it is okay to make out with a bloody ghost. Not that she shows skin….hardly, considering she plays a Muslim ghost…but she certainly exuded the exotic eroticism effortlessly, for me that is. Okay, enough about her, Rakesh, stop it!

I suppose that could be one of the reasons the film failed on me. I mean, this film should be slightly away from the other usual stereotyped Nane Varuven type female ghost flicks, considering this time it involved Islam.

Yes, usually it would be some Catholic Fathers or Hindu PoosAris grappling with apparitions and perform the exorcism. But this time, its some Muslim Imam (?) who does the job. In that way, this film sticks out slightly and worth checking out.

Otherwise, it's just another supposedly horror flick with the usual clichés, formulas, stereotypes and tropes that the filmmaker use to ensure that it satisfies the audience who would immediately seek these out in the first place.

There are hardly jump-outta-your-seat scenes, but that depends on how jumpy you are. For someone who had seen the abovementioned Barathiraja directed flick about red rose, and many, many fine Hollywood horrors flicks (I prefer sci-fi horrors, like Alien and its sequels, Invasion of the Body Snatcher, The Thing, etc)….I am not too affected by those scenes.

Also, as a well-wisher of Sunder C who had enjoyed his early semi-comedic films, I know well that this is not within his territory, though he himself had already directed and starred in the Aranmanai films which had strong comedic content, which lacked in this film.

All in all, this is a so and so film, only worth it if you are fine with the cast, and intrigued by the Islamic angle to it.  As for me, if I come across it again, I am watching it for Sai Dhanshika. What a lovely ghost she is…. please haunt me.