yaavarum nalam ( 13/B) Movie Review

One Legendary lens man who has no award left to win and no greater laurel to achieve, Three super-hit musicians who have close to a 100% record in giving hit and soul searching hindi music, One Honest actor bugged by the formula system, a neat attempt at genre-specific screenplay and one hell of a spooky plot come together to give tamil and hindi cinema a clean horror/thriller film after a long long time.

Yaavarum Nalam doesn't have ghosts scaring you, But it is just the unnatural circumstances and a horrifying flashback that leave you clutching your neighbour's hands in the theatre. The stress on 13 and B and the LIFT (ala rgv ke bhoot) may seem cliched sometime but they do have an effect. The fact that this author had the lights on last night before going to sleep is ample proof of the fact that the movie has had an effect on the audience's psyche and that is what a horror is meant to do. In fact the major victory of the movie is that a bunch of uncouth mass lovers who were trying to make fun of the movie in the first half and hour, remained shut in silence and shock for the rest of the film. :)

There is an unnecessarily producer-driven duet which thankfully ends soon and then there are no set backs in narration. Minute detailing required for a good horror film are in plenty. The typical crazy characters who have now become an essential part of every 'i wanna scare u' movie are also present. In fact every body's face is some how made to look scary in this film.

PC SRIRAM simply plays with the camera. This is astounding experimental camera work completely new to tamil cinema. The legend has come into the film and made it his own. The camera crouches slowly and suddenly rushes in to peek at the thrill with screaming BGM from Shankar Ehsan and LOY. The camera also oscillates during unsteady situation and a beautiful piece of constantly tension building music flows in the back ground

Madhavan has done a very neat job. But he somehow doesn't seem to have come out of his evano oruvan character. Probably this character is similar in sketch. Neetu chandra is perfectly cast. So is the blind man and every member of the flash back family. Saranya too is just perfect.

In another move that ishallreview completely appreciates, the director brings in small doses of humour for a small time without missing the beat/flow of the thriller. Kudos.

Overall, Krish King Nishanth is not a great fan of horror/supernatural cinema but this film made him more than sit through its thrills. He appreciates it for sticking to its very well written plot and some never seen before technical wizardry. A very good film and a welcome break for the tamil industry.

ps:- PC Sriram speaks louder than language :)