After being part of successful horror-genre films like Maya and Dora, Nayanthara is back with yet another one that gives her ample scope to perform. But debutant director Sarjun’s complicated writing and screenplay hardly manage to engage the viewers and fail to do justice to one of the most exploited genres in Tamil cinema. The director takes a lot of time to establish the characters and there are sequences that are quite strange and illogical even for a horror film.
In the very first scene, we are introduced to Yamuna (Nayanthara), a young columnist who works for a newspaper called Makkal Mail. Her character is portrayed as someone who is bold, strong yet sensible — she scolds a random guy on the road, uses swear words to reject the proposal of her misogynist boyfriend and even quits her job as her boss disagrees with her new ideas. At one point of time, to escape from a marriage proposal, she decides to travel all the way to her grandmother’s place, which is located on the outskirts of Pollachi. Yamuna starts a YouTube channel while in Pollachi, with the help of her cousin Mani (Yogi Babu). She posts spooky ghost videos in order to trend on social media. However, trouble begins, when she realises that her grandmother’s place is haunted for real and a mysterious force is after their lives. Meanwhile, Sarjun shows us a parallel story of Amudhan (Kalaiyarasan), an ex-army man, who is in search of reasons for mysterious murders happening around him. The second half reveals the connect between these two stories, with a flashback sequence that justifies the murders.
Airaa’s storyline is quite interesting and has all scope to induce fear in audience for a period of time. But Sarjun’s writing is a big letdown, as it is both complicated and bizarre. The climax sequence is very amateurish and unconvincing. The only plus point is that Sarjun has managed to rope in the right cast and technicians for the film. One of the plots is in black and white, and the other is in colour and even though the scenes play out parallel, the editor of the film Karthik Jogesh, ensured synchronisation. A couple of moments in the flashback sequences does make a connect with the audience. But the duration is too long for us to sit through and enjoy them. Debutant actor Maathevan’s (who comes as younger version of Kalaiyarasan) screen presence is quite impressive and he manages to register himself in on people’s mind. Saving the best for the last — Lady Superstar Nayanthara has given her best once again to enhance the drama and has performed exceptionally well in the flashback sequences. If not for her, the film would have failed to create that buzz and encourage people to watch it in theatres. She has carried the entire film on her shoulders, making it a one-time watch.
