The eagerly-anticipated first-of-its-kind 'techno' horror thriller in Malayalam, 'Chathur Mukham' premiered on Zee 5 today.
The film follows the story of Thejaswini (Manju Warrier) a cell-phone addict and aspiring entrepreneur as she encounters a strange phone that appears to be haunted with a vengeful spirit. Try as she might, she cannot get rid of it and is forced to embark on a perilous journey to investigate its antecedents.
Despite an interesting premise and good production quality, Chathur Mukham falters due to sub-par acting, especially from Sunny Wayne and a laughable antagonist. The jump scares are few and far between and the suspense elements are simply not nearly engaging enough.
The film is criminally overlong at 2 hours and 18 minutes and tests your patience by exploring several tangential sub-plots that have no impact on the core storyline.
Another film that tried to balance both the horror and thriller genres, Chathur Mukham achieves some of the horror but none of the thrills.
Manju Warrier is however, a delight as the leading lady and it is her superlative performance, alongside the innovativeness of the core idea that makes the movie moderately.
An interesting concept that could have been executed so much better!
Not recommended!