M. S. Bhaskar – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: So, are we going to a colony of a demon?

Vampire Bat: Do you think that this is about a colony of some demon?

Vampire Owl: I never knew that demons had colonies.

Vampire Bat: I have heard about the first movie of this series.

Vampire Owl: Well, we missed that one, didn’t we? At least this one is on Jio Hotstar.

Vampire Bat: It only means from the mount/hill – not related to demons, I think.

Vampire Owl: Well, there are witches on the mountains.

Vampire Bat: Those are mountains to us only because we live below sea level.

Vampire Owl: Still, the northern witches from above are the most dangerous.

Vampire Bat: If they are connected the demons, yes. I believe that shadow world would have something to do about the same.

[Gets a chicken puttu and three cups of Kodaikanal tea].

What is the movie about? :: Samuel a.k.a. Sam (Sarjano Khalid) is a cancer survivor, who is seen as hanging in his room and his friends fall to death from an apartment building. Debbie (Priya Bhavani Shankar), Sam’s wife, suspects that there is something sinister about this as he had just gone through so many treatments and prayers defeating the illness, thus becoming a survivor whom everyone celebrated. A few years after Sam’s death, she continues to have attempts to impregnate herself with Sam’s preserved sperm, much to the dismay of her parents, friends and relatives. Sam’s father Richard (Arun Pandian) is the only person who supports Debbie in whatever she does, not thinking about its consequences. Six years past Sam’s death, Debbie inaugurates her Chinese restaurant in memory of her husband. There, sensing Sam’s presence, she consults a monk to communicate with Sam’s spirit. At the same time, in Hyderabad, Raghunandhan a.k.a. Raghu (Arulnithi Tamilarasu) and his half-sister Aishwarya (Archana Ravichandran) contest in the court as their lost brother is inheriting 70% of their deceased father’s two thousand five hundred crore worth of property.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: When the monk sends Debbie to the spirit world despite all bad omens, she sees Sam trapped among many souls and she keeps on writing about help and drawing the face of Raghu. It is shown that both Raghu and his lost brother Srinivasan a.k.a. Srini who also look alike had gone through accidents from where they miraculously escape, but the latter had ended in a comma. Raghu obtains a court order for Srini’s passive euthanasia, hoping that he could claim that part of inheritance. But Debbie warns Raghu that they are linked from within and harming Srini will also kill him who had also survived those linked accidents. It is revealed that they who are born from the same atom, has remained cosmically entangled, and destined to live or die together. This goes back to that past which linked those accidents that occurred at the same time to some unknown supernatural power. Srini was also admitted to Richard’s hospital, and as a doctor, he has been taking care of him, despite not much hope of him getting back to senses being received.

And what more is to follow here in a world of evil ready to be unleashed? :: A further investigation leads to a mysterious book, Unsung King of a Fallen Kingdom, previously read by Sam and Srini’s friend. This book has the figure of Baphomet, a goat-headed demonic identity and an inverted cross, symbolizing the worship of Satan. This king is supposed to be from Portugal, and has been associated with Anti-Christ. The book had only been read once in six years, and the borrowers mysteriously dies and the book was every time recovered and brought to different libraries by some unknown figure. Further research brings the name, “Demonte Colony,” and rests on the idea about existence of an evil force and a chain which brings further power of the damned. They are able to find this house, and plans to keep it barricaded with the help of police, only to find screams from inside and the realization that someone might be already inside. There are four girls inside, and only one of them remains sane, and this girl named Adithi (Meenakshi Govindarajan) reveals more of the horror – but evil has been spreading quickly, and is it too late to intervene?

The defence of Demonte Colony 2 :: The movie rests on the shoulders of Priya Bhavani Shankar who not only handles the horror as a scream queen, but also manages the emotional side well. Arulnithi surely brings further depth to the situation with his performance. The thrills keep the movie engaged throughout its run, and there are some twists added here too. There is some effective use of darkness and the atmosphere of different locations. The background music nicely supports the generation of fear which keeps increasing the feeling of danger after starting with a mystery which needs to be solved. The use of multiple kinds of demonic references and the clues to something even bigger coming in a third movie, has us every much interested. The sequel surely would have something even bigger, as it seems to give the idea. A lot would continue to be revealed in the next movie, and the way in which the movie has been dealing with the big reveals here also need to be appreciated. The supporting cast also supports the same including Meenakshi Govindarajan, Arun Pandian, Sarjano Khalid, Archana Ravichandran, Vettai Muthukumar and others.

Positives and negatives :: The CGI and special effects are pretty good, but there is nothing incredibly terrifying, something which could have been added by the end of the movie. There will still be the feeling that there is some predictability associated with it. The psychological side could have been stronger, but we see that the other side make up for it. There are also so many things being talked about, and some might feel confused – but that would make sure that there is not shortage of content in this rather long movie. The Hindi version was the only dubbed language on Jio Hotstar does make one feel strange too. The fans of the first movie might not want this one to go too complex, but the addition of legends and the leading actress have only made it better. Still, for us intellectual horror watchers, creation of a new world and a lot of horror from beneath has helped. This movie also feels like more emotionally touching and with so many layers which could be explored even further in a sequel with more mysteries to be revealed.

How it finishes :: Demonte Colony 2 extends the tale of the first movie with ease, and there are some nice connections being made here. The scope for sequel is very well-set, and we know that the evil will come in its greatest form in the next movie, where the characters also seem to point to the same, as the best might be still to come. A bigger commercial success here would mean that there could be a spectacle in score, and third one could be the classic. Along with Pechi, this would be another Tamil horror classic which we would remember for long. This is at a time when Malayalam movie industry is more interested in bringing psychos and serial killers for terror instead of the supernatural. May the lovers of the supernatural continue to find solace in movies like this one which successfully creates its own demons like Sinister, Insidious, Ouija and others which have also succeeded outside the Conjuring–Annabelle–Nun universe. Let this one serve the horror enthusiast well and inspire the person to watch more of the same kind.

Release date: 15th August 2024
Running time: 144 minutes
Directed by: R Ajay Gnanamuthu
Starring: Arulnithi, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Arun Pandian, Vettai Muthukumar, Antti Jaaskelainen, Tsering Dorjee, Meenakshi Govindarajan, Ramesh Thilak, Sarjano Khalid, Master Allam, Archana Ravichandran, M. S. Bhaskar, Priyadarshini Rajkumar, Raneesh, Abishek Joseph George, Kalaiyarasan, Ravi Venkatraman, Senthi Kumari, Soundarya Mahesh Babu, Tenzin Dargya

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Vampire Owl :: We have missed two remakes of Drishyam and might miss another one after watching this movie.

Vampire Bat :: Yes, if and only if there are no more remakes of the same movie.

Vampire Owl :: I don’t think that there will be another remake as the Bollywood version is coming this month-end.

Vampire Bat :: Yes, Bollywood is the finishing line for all copies and remakes, I guess.

Vampire Owl :: Absolutely. Wait! What is the notice that you are carrying?

Vampire Bat :: It is a mandatory statement which I recreated for this movie. It says that as we have watched the original so many times and as it is the one more related to our lifestyle, it is possible that the rating which we give here might not be suitable to be compared to the oiriginal, or with any other movie which is not a remake.

Vampire Owl :: I like that statement. With this warning, we can be sure that the brainless fan-boys won’t go psycho.

Vampire Bat :: Not just the fan-boys, but also the pseudo-intellectuals.

Vampire Owl :: Yes, the judges on the other side of the river of blood who think that they are the only intelligent people on the surface of Earth. I understand.

Vampire Bat :: The statement will work as long as they read at least the beginning and the end of this review.

[Waits in the queue].

The defence of Papanasam :: Even though I had watched all these before multiple times, I felt very good, and it is the success of Papanasam. Jeethu Jospeph once again has things running well, and we can see shots of his other movie Memories when the protagonist is thinking about saving his family – another shot is from the movie Anwar. I could actually go through that wonderful feeling that I had while watching the original without losing strength at any moment. The suspense and the thrills are abundant, and there are some beautiful shots of nature too. The story of the man who tries to save his family from breaking down after an unintentional murder committed by a member out of hopelessness, goes on to work wonders once again. I am not going to go through the story again; you can read it from my review of the original at Drishyam Movie Review. Outside the review which I wrote at that time, I don’t need to say much in defence here because the story is the biggest hero and you know that plot.

Positives and Negatives :: Papanasam happens to be a remake which had a tough task to meet the quality of that amazing original. So, what we have here is a nice achievement, but unless the remake manages to come up with something special which was not there in the original, I wouldn’t consider it as good as the original. The original felt more original to me, with no bones broken during the beatings and slightly better for me as it was less brutal, less emotional and still having the same intensity. But still, if I say that one of them is better than the other, it might not do justice, which is why I am using “me” a lot. Drishyam was better for me, and I am sure that a lot of people who have watched the original and about ninety five percent of the Malayalis will think so. But from a neutral point of view, they might be the same. I did feel that the songs were just bad though. The first half was too stretchy too. I am also personally against the title change.

Soul of the movie :: Kamal Haasan was the right choice to do the role which Mohanlal did to perfection in the original. I do wonder why there was a doubt about the same – if someone had asked me, I would have told the same much earlier, despite an initial doubt about the same. But in that case, if you ask for the same about the Bollywood version, I would have chosen Aamir Khan. But that was never to happen, and Ajay Devgan and Akshay Kumar were to be my next best choices considering the need to cater to the audience. I haven’t watched many Kamal Haasan movies in the last few years, and I am glad that this is the movie which I had chosen to spend my money for. I loved his performance the most in the last few minutes, and if someone else was chosen instead of him, that would have left me not just disappointed, but angry – I can feel that.

Performers of the soul :: There is no comparison between Mohanlal and Kamal Haasan in their roles, because they have managed things in their own ways, in such a way that fault finding is not there as a property to be taken. You know when you see class, and you know the same in both these movies. Even though Gauthami was good, Meena has a slight edge over her, when we look at it without second thoughts. Niveda Thomas is undoubtedly a step ahead of Ansiba Hassan; there was a lot of emotion and power in her portrayal of the character. It is nice to see her doing this role; this should help her a lot in the future. I haven’t found such a fine performance from a very young supporting actress for a very long time. Winner of the Kerala State Film Award for Best Child Artist in Veruthe Oru Bharya has now reached this stage.

More Performers of the soul :: Esther Anil plays the younger daughter in three out of the five versions of the movie, and here also, she is so good. Bollywood should have had her in the cast too, but I guess that they were not looking for a fine proven supporting cast, but to make use of the power of the script which is always there as the winner. Esther might be the best available child actress at this time, and it has been made clear again and again. It is time to give her even more chances. Asha Sarath maintains the same intensity, just with more emotions this time, and Anant Mahadevan also becomes more emotional character compared to the sensible and stable one played by Siddique in the original. I loved Kalabhavan Shajon’s character in the original for it was balanced, but Kalabhavan Mani is rather ruthless here and it also works. Roshan Basheer also reprises his role as the bad boy.

[After the show].

Vampire Owl :: Why were those people sitting behind us comparing Mohanlal and Kamal Haasan?

Vampire Bat :: They are just clueless. They don’t know anything. Just think about how can we compare Lord Ruthven and Lord Dracula?

Vampire Owl :: Yes, both are legendary vampires with great skills, even though we are closer to Uncle Dracula – it won’t affect the quality of the performance.

Vampire Bat :: I hope that the fans won’t find our vampire comparisons offensive though.

Vampire Owl :: I am sure that those with even a small part of the brain active won’t. This is the best comparison that we can come up with because we are vampires with root-canaled fangs.

Vampire Bat :: You can never predict the living humans. If you want to predict behaviours, go and predict that of a dead human.

Vampire Owl :: I like that idea. May be we will watch the Bollywood version too.

Vampire Bat :: We have come so far. I don’t see why not.

Vampire Owl :: I shall call the whole team for that.

Vampire Bat :: Well, do that if it is even remotely possible.

Release date: 3rd July 2015
Running time: 181 minutes
Directed by: Jeethu Joseph
Starring: Kamal Haasan, Gauthami, Niveda Thomas, Esther Anil, Kalabhavan Mani, Asha Sarath, Anant Mahadevan, M. S. Bhaskar, Roshan Basheer, Charle, Delhi Ganesh, Ilavarasu, Arul Dass, Sree Raam