Kumari

Let me come straight to the point, Surabhi Lakshmi was terrific. The casting was perfect, the colour grading & all is perfect as well. But it's the screenplay which falls flat after that 1st half & the animations could have been better. The character of Shine Tom Chacko can be a little irritating at times but he did shine in his role. Aishwarya lekshmi did her part well especially during the 2nd half. The timelines in the movie is quite confusing as the songs & certain aspects do not match with the time period. The songs were unnecessary & few of the BGM seems a mismatch to the time period. Aesthetically the movie is quite appealing but the story seems thin. The opening sequence is literally the same as tumbbad. Give it a watch for a Saturday night movie.

Barring a few scenes, the movie is refreshing and with a lot new and chilling ideas. Aishwarya Lakshmi as Kumari is really terrific. She excels in many scenes.

Apart from her, Shine Tom Chacko, Swasika Vijay and Surabhi Lakshmi make their presence felt.

The background score by Jakes Bejoy is pulsating and a couple of songs are really good.

Nirmal Sahadev's story is a heady mixture of fantasy and horror. As the director, he did a clean job of presenting an eminently watchable movie, if you can excuse him for a few boring scenes.

The locations are very good and carefully chosen by the movie team. Overall, a paisa vasool movie.

Kumari, produced by Prithviraj, promises a lot of intrugue, mystique and thrills in the trailer. It succeeds in providing the intrigue and the mystique but fails in the thrills dept. The movie is the fable of a woman named Kumari who gets married and travels to a small village steeped in folklore and the tale of two opposing demons. The first half does a good job of building up the storyline and sets clear expectations of what to expect in the second half. The background score also sets the mood of the film. I expected more horror elements but all you get are a few jump scares which was disheartening.

The second half carries on from the first in much the same fashion and your expectation builds up only to be let down in the climax. Without spoiling, I'll just say that the prosthetics looked cheap and the action underwhelming. Also, what were Shine's dialogues in the movie? He kept mumbling in a raspy voice all throughout and I was not able to understand more than half of what he said.

Overall, the acting is top notch by entire cast. The stand out performance for me was Surabhi Lakshmi. Absolutely amazing. She also had to learn a weird malayalam dialect which required subtitles for the viewers to understand.

6/10.

Let me get this straight first, this is by no means a bad film, but screenplay doesnt give the story enough strength to give the audience the needed effect.

The first 20mins of prelude had some of the best story telling i have seen in some time but from there the screenplay meanders. Cinematography was top notch with some brilliant shots, nusic was okayish though i dont think it fits a period fantasy film.

Aishwarya lekshmi gives it her all.

There are portions of the film that we wish we had a forward button and the climax showdown looked amateurish.

As i said in the beginning its not a bad film by any means but leaves a lot to be desired.

A decent attempt to make Tummbad in a traditional Kerala household setting, which unfortunately ended up becoming a cheap replica of the original, with a few redeeming qualities.

The visuals were enchanting but anyone who has seen Tummbad can make the connection within the opening act (my 5 yr old daughter could spot it by then.)

Shine Tom and Aishwarya were majestic but the Demigods were reminiscent of the 80's Hollywood creature-flick atrocities, which kind of made the final few shots unpalatable.

The movie has taken inspiration from a variety of sources but managed to incorporate them beautifully, the character development and atmosphere building were impeccable.

If it hadn't been for the lackluster climax, this would've been a spiritual successor to the genre defining cult classics like "Manichitrathazhu" and "Anandabhadram", alas, it wasn't to be.

If you haven't seen Tummbad, brace yourself for a memorable watch that will stay with you for a long time, both for it's aesthetics and pitiable climax sequences.

Overall, a decent attempt at recreating the on-screen magic of Tummbad.