Horror thrillers are aplenty in Tamil cinema. One film in this genre releases almost every week. Director Kranthi Prasad’s Santhoshathil Kalavaram, running in theatres now, tries to give a fresh twist to this genre by introducing an element of ‘cosmic energy’ into the battle of good vs evil.
The film starts with a group of nine friends (5 guys and 4 girls) venturing into a forest bungalow belonging to Vicky (C Kalyan). Vicky plots to use the situation to have sex with Kalaivani (Gouthami Jadav) using several tricks.
His friends Johny (Rudra Aura) and Murugan (Jai Jagannadh), too, try to sleep with Sujatha Subramanian (Shivani) and Apeksha Panchal (Apeksha Panchal).
Upon learning of their sinister motive, Akash (Aaryan) and Harini (Soujanya), who play a couple in love, try to foil the sexual advances of their friends. They dress up as ghosts and use funny scare tactics (that fills the first half of the film) to keep the boys away from the girls. But, little do they know that there is really a malevolent ghost (Ravi Mariya) in the house that is trying to exact revenge on Vicky.
Why the ghost wants the revenge and to what length it goes to inflict hardships on the gang forms the crux of the story.
The hero of the movie surprisingly is not any of the 10 characters mentioned above, but, in fact, a sixth guy, Venu (Niranth), in the group who until the interval has little to no dialogues. The director keeps his persona a mystery which adds to the thrilling narrative.
The director has used the silver screen to give a message of how spiritual forces and cosmic energy can be used to ward off evil in mind and the world. The debutant director has impressed with the handling of his film.
The performances by the actors are noteworthy and the characters do not look like they were performed by rookies. Especially Niranth, Soujanya and Aaryan have done well.
Director Kranthi Prasad has made the movie taut and crisp without boring scenes. He has to be lauded for attempting a relatively unexplored storyline within the horror genre in Tamil cinema and making it interesting.