Movies

Airaa Review: This Nayanthara Film Has Too Many Illogical Loopholes

A Lady Superstar film after ‘Imaikka Nodigal’.

Revered as a Lady Superstar, much was expected from Nayanthara’s latest offering – a horror film called Airaa. The film received a tremendous response for its trailer, but what really happens in the theatre is a whole other story. The movie is something between horror and an emotional revenge story. Director Sarjun KM, who previously directed acclaimed short films like Lakshmi and Maa, seems to be confused, trying too many things and thus resulting in the narrative constantly changing.

The story revolves around Yamuna, a video blogger who flees to Pollachi as she doesn’t want to marry the man her parents have chosen for her. Soon, she starts witnessing supernatural elements in the bungalow occupied by her visually-challenged grandmother and her help (Yogi Babu). Based on her supernatural experiences, Yamuna comes up with a business venture of making fake haunted-house videos and wants to make money out of it.

While all this takes place in present times, there’s a parallel storyline running in the film, the story of Amudhavan set in Chennai, who loses his love Bhavani in a road accident. Post her death, a series of unrelated deaths happen around him that are connected to Bhavani’s death. The story is about how the two plots intersect and what Yamuna had to do with the death of Bhavani as she wants to avenge her.

Nayanthara holds the movie with her performance as Bhavani, the dark-complexioned girl whose life is about a series of unfortunate events. All those events leave her hungry for revenge, right from her death to her painful separation from Amudhavan, the only light of her life. On the contrary, Nayanthara, who also plays Yamuna, comes off as an uninteresting and contradictory character. She wavers from cowering with fear and miraculously goes back to being strong and bold – it’s almost too confusing a pace to keep up with. With Yogi Babu in the picture, one would expect the Kolamaavu Kokila to recreate their magic, but alas! The duo fails to recreate the amusement on screen that they once had.

The film’s fractured storyline makes it implausible for the audience to stay invested. The narrative plays out Bhavani’s reasons for revenge with feeble content, leaving everyone unconvinced. While it might be a dubbed a horror flick, the lack of a plausible plot makes it more of a stagy dramatic film with elements of tragedy peppered in. If you are afraid of horror movies in general, then this shouldn’t worry you too much as the jump scares aren’t as ‘jumpy’ as in the trailer.

KS Sundaramurthy tries to get you hooked on to his edgy background score, leaving “Megathoodam” lingering in your mind long after you leave the theatre.

The concept of the butterfly effect applied by the director might seem interesting on paper, but as the film progresses, one realises that it serves a no bigger purpose and leaves you disappointed from all the expectations it raked in.

VERDICT: Though the Nayanthara-starrer has its moments, it has too many logical loopholes marring the script.

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