Sai Pallavi and Naga Shourya are lovers since a very young age. One day, they share an intimate night, during their first year of college, which leads to Sai Pallavi getting pregnant. Their respective families help them to sort the situation by convincing her to abort the unborn child. They also decide to get the couple married, but, with a condition; both Sai Pallavi and Naga Shourya should not see each other until they finish their education.
Sai Pallavi who is pursuing her doctorate degree, out of loneliness begins to hallucinate about how her life would be if she had bore the child. Four years later, she gets married to Naga Shourya, and move in together to begin a new life.
However, the house they live together is haunted by a toddler, Veronica Arora, who keeps close to Sai Pallavi at all times. In the mean time, everyone who is close to Sai Pallavi and Naga Shourya keeps dying in mysterious ways. Figuring out about how the murders are connected to the couple, and who Veronica is, forms the crux of the story.
Previously titled as Karu, Diya, marks as the debut film for both Sai Pallavi and Naga Shourya. They have delivered a good performance, with the former owning the role. Her abilityto emote pain, confusion and love is something to be appreciated for. She will definitely have a long way to go in the industry. Veronica Arora has done an adorable. Though she is casted as the spirit which haunts their livelihood, one can't help but fall for her cute expressions. Thankfully, there are no grotesque scenes or bad make up involving her.
RJ Balaji plays an out-of-box character, as a police officer who investigates the murders, and has delivered a convincing performance. Nizhalgal Ravi, Rekha and Stunt Silva have done justice in playing their parts neatly.
AL Vijay, is known for his content driven off-beat movies, has for the first time tried his hand at a horror genre. The director has yet again done a pretty decent job in the directorial department even though many loose ends are evident.
However, Vijay's approach about abortion throws a new light on the sensitive topic. Diya is a type of a scary film, which doesn't make one feel chilled to the bones, instead it just haunts you in an emotional way.
Sam CS has provided the music for the film, and his scores are on point. A perfect mix of a haunting, spooky theme that has an alarming tension attached to it. Nirav Shah cranks the camera and given the movie, the necessary horror edge to it.
In short,Diya (Karu), is a one-time watch horror film.
