Until then, the popularity of OTT platforms was limited to the urban area and above the middle class. Due to the national lockdown, people were restricted from staying in the home and didn’t have many entertainment options. Screenplay in the film is done by director Rahul Sadasivan in association with Sreekumar Shreyas. New Delhi, Dec 19 ZEE5 on Monday announced the premiere of Tamil action thriller ‘Kaari’, on December 23. New Delhi, Dec 19 This Christmas, rekindle your sense of wonder with Zee Theatre as it brings two internationally acclaimed musicals to the small screen.
India is heading towards the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the makers of the movie have decided to skip the theater release. This mystery thriller has been released directly on the online streaming platform SonyLIV, which is owned by Sony Pictures Network India. Malayalam Horror drama Bhoothakaalam has recently chosen a direct OTT release. This mystery drama stars Mollywood actor Shane Nigam in the male lead role. Actor Biju Menon and actor Joju George have shared the Best Actor awards for their performance in the film ‘Aarkkariyam’ and ‘Madhuram, Freedom Fight, Thuramukham and Naayaattu’ respectively.
Nearly three decades later comes Bhoothakaalam, which tells an equally intriguing and baffling story, with terrifying results. It is written and directed by Palakkad-based Rahul Sadasivan, and has been streaming on the OTT platform SonyLIV since January 21. Bhoothakaalam movie early reviews are out now and they are highly praiseworthy in a range of 3 to 3.5 stars out of 5 stars.
But where the script — written by Sreekumar Shreyas along with the director — succeeds in, is in injecting a sense of skepticism into the audience about what is going on-screen. Bhoothakaalam is the latest Malayalam film which has released on OTT Platform SonyLIV on January 21, 2022. This screen time of this horror film is around 1 hour 45 minutes. Compelling actress Revathi is on a roll these days, what with several of her projects releasing in 2021. There was the hard-hitting Itlu Amma that released on SonyLIV.
So, I was ready to experiment, but how does one tell a ghost story without showing the ghost? Or even if I am showing a ghost, how does it connect with the characters or the context of the film? I wanted to be subtle, not loud, and I knew I could only achieve it through powerful performances in creating that atmosphere,” says Sadasivan. Its slow narrative builds this unsettling sense of atmosphere and dread of the unnatural and unknown, along with an unexpected but welcome mystery element. The concept of the paranormal is brought together playing with perspectives mixed with psychological settings.
Just like his friends and relatives, Vinu’s mother also thinks that something is wrong with him and takes him to a counselor. While Asha begins to realise that Vinu’s feelings about someone else being present in the house is true, the counselor learns about the past history of the house principal appreciation month in which the mother and son are living. In the same house, several years ago, two people hung themselves unable to tolerate the feelings of the presence of another person. He also finds that both of them were suffering emotional setbacks due to different reasons back in their time.
It employs both reason and delirium as it delivers the mystifying questions that the unknown and the unseen throw up and the answers that humans seek to find a way around the unexplainable. For the most part, Jalal works instead with shadows, silhouettes and spaces in which light jostles with darkness. In the process, the film generates fear and foreboding with minimum fuss and maximum impact. Bhoothakaalam is also a smartly edited film that creates a rhythm supportive of the deliberate pace of the story.
But the film that truly championed the horror genre through a new style of storytelling and sensational sound-effects was Fazil’s 1993-thriller Manichitrathazhu . Starring powerhouses like Shobana, Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Nedumudi Venu and Thilakan, the story was set in a haunted mansion where the spirit of a classical dancer comes alive. The film never once showed a ghost and yet it was able to send a chill down the spine. There was another key element to the film that gelled well with the paranormal – mental health. This came at a time when it was rarely discussed in popular discourse.
Pharm degree and his mother’s salary is just about enough for a hand-to-mouth existence. The truth of that observation hits home with chilling force much later in the 106-minute film. Sound, or more importantly the lack of it, plays a major role in the film. “When I was writing the script, I wanted the poetic aspect of the tension to come from the absence of something.
Though the film presents itself as horror, it is just as much an allegory for grief, trauma, clinical depression and how the central character is slowly going insane. The movie follows a template of connecting psychological disorder with fear inducing fantasy. The film also depicts the portrayal of characters who are affected by mental disorders like clinical depression and substance abuse, delivering a hard reality check on the gravity of such mental issues. The director has used an eerie looking house as a metaphor for the minds of its inhabitants, a mother and son.
