But I couldn’t be sure, for, by then, I had mentally signed out of this film. And towards the end, I think I remember seeing Shankar Mahadevan and Hariharan on stage, singing a devotional song. In classic Aranmanai style, suddenly, temples and rituals make a comeback too. Raashii Khanna, looking dainty and meek Nalini getting body-shamed and making TikTok videos. Vivekh running around, complaining about his sex life. Actor Arya looking quite pissed off for some reason.
Imagine the state of a film, in which you don’t even feel empathetic for a murdered woman. She cares more about the child of a “velaikkaran” being anointed to privilege than she does, it seems, about the fate of her own child. None of it matters anyway, as the ghost-woman herself is rather classist and spiteful. Watch how this film is careful to write her ‘infidelity’ as taking place before the marriage. For a brief moment, it seemed that Andrea’s character had something interesting to say, when she rebels against being treated like property. Given the uninspired iterations of this idea over the years, I took it all in, numbed by the sheer repetition of it all.
If such be the sorry state of the humour, what of the emotional payoffs? Andrea plays the vengeful ghost (is there another type in these films?), and to set this up, we are shown yet another flashback featuring an exploitative murder. He complains through the film about not getting any sex from his wife, and it’s used as an opportunity by other characters to look at the woman in rather lascivious light and draw attention to her virginity. I empathised with him, as it seemed like it was pretty much what I was going through as well.Īs for the late Vivekh, I hoped that this film would serve as a reminder of his unique comic ability, but the writing does his talent no justice. As Yogi Babu howled in pain when yet another object found its way into his posterior, I didn’t laugh. “ Palli moonji!” “ Onaa moonji!” “Butter biscuit!” When these insults fail to work, the director tries to bring back an old idea from Tamil cinema comedy of yore: The sharp-objects-pierce-posterior idea. Yogi Babu-named Abhishek in this film only so he can attempt to rhyme it with ‘milk shake’ in a dialogue-largely resorts to insult comedy aimed at his associate (Manobala). With Sundar C, you expect at least the jokes to work, given his track record-and how he has actors like the late Vivekh and the now-trending Yogi Babu to work with in this film. It’s 150 minutes of insulting mediocrity.ĪLSO READ|| Aranmanai 3: Set worth Rs 2 crore used in the climax of Sundar C's next
Have your silly ghost, but please ensure that we root for it. Have your duets, but please ensure that the songs and visuals are pleasing. Have your mandatory exploitative flashbacks, but please ensure that the emotional beats are moving. Have your characters scamper about in the mansion, but please ensure that the jokes land. In these films, all you really seek are the guilty pleasures. Even still, it’s astonishing how little Aranmanai 3 seems to care about being novel.Ĭast: Arya, Sundar C, Raashii Khanna, Sampath, Vivekh, Yogi Babu It’s what we have seen in multiple carbon copy films in this genre. Some sneaky objectification of the heroine, a couple of double entendres… And towards the end, a prayer to god that solves all problems. A flashback designed to manipulate you into caring for the ghost. A bunch of characters running about, as the ghost plays peekaboo with them. Having endured the previous Aranmanai films, you know what to expect, in a sense. In all of Aranmanai 3, I doubt there’s a single new idea, a single genuine moment of storytelling that occurs organically. I speak not just about this franchise but about the horror-comedy genre in general. The truth is, they are not even trying anymore.
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