Andhaghaaram

2020, Tamil, Netflix, 7.9/10 IMDB, Directed by V. Vignarajam

A technically mesmerizing suspense thriller that masters parallel editing and extends a surreal experience, that overrides the mundane supernatural phenomena, through its convincing ‘willful suspension of disbelief’.

The supernatural phenomena of the dead communicating through an interesting medium is the theme. The audience are sucked in to the story straight away as the film opens with three unrelated characters. A psychiatrist, Dr. Indran, played by Kumar Natarajan, whose family is massacred by one of his patients and the doctor remains in coma. A blind man Selvam, played by Vinoth Kishan, who is a public library clerk. His father was a famous occult whose practice he had accompanied as a kid and is familiar with few practices himself. A cricket coach Vinod, played by Arjun Das, who lives in guilt for gifting an occult book to his friend Pradeep, which made him mentally disturbed.

Interestingly each one’s events unfolds parallelly. The story emanates from the supernatural manipulation of one’s mental health and its permuted consequences. The common lead to the three stories is the character Pooja, played by the elegant Pooja Ramachandran, teacher of Selvam at blind school, sister to Vinod’s mentally disturbed friend Pradeep, who is also coincidentally Dr. Indran’s patient.

The screenplay prompts the viewers to correlate the three stories and at one point the timeline seemingly overlaps. Yet the suspense consistently mounts. What makes the film stand out is the editing that plays as a pivotal storytelling technique. The ‘cross editing’ of more that one happenings and the simultaneous progressing of the story further is commendable.

The aesthetics in black and white shots are exceptionally eye appealing and the scenes are choreographed with passion. The lengthy duration of 2hr 51 mins sure is worrisome but being an OTT release does ease the burden. The non linear narrative at places does pose a threat in keeping oneself consistently invested in the film. Nevertheless, an unique experience for the Tamil audience.

Arjun Das nails the character’s traits evoking the right balance of suspicion and pity with shades of grey to begin with. So has Vinoth Kishan, as the visually challenged character, whose arc righteously comes a full circle. Pooja’s subtly scores and Arjun’s girlfriend, played by Misha Ghoshal, accusing her boyfriend’s weird behavior, echoes the viewer’s confusion, providing a brief comic relief.

The debut directorial ‘Andhaghaaram’, which translates ‘Darkness’, ironically brings to light and showcases upcoming refined talents. The challenging screenplay is backed by mind blowing editing, loyal performances, phenomenal camera work, credible lighting, noteworthy sound and curious production design.

Kudos to the team, which sure is to turn some big heads towards the south, yet again.

Good watch.