Kaashmora – Movie Review

What’s it about
Kaashmora (Karthi) who claims to be exorcist runs an ashram-kind of center and turns this into a business. His entire family is involved in this. Much of the story progresses on how he dupes various people with his false ghost busting techniques. And this false claims attract a centuries-old pretatma called Raju Nayak which is trapped in a dilapidated fort. Unknowingly Kaashmora comes to this fort and he gets trapped. From here the story of Raju Nayak and why this pretaatma (soul) brings Kaashmora to this place is narrated.

Analysis
‘Kaashmora’ starts off  interestingly. The introduction of Kaashmora’s character and his dupe ways of ghost busting is hilariously and also engagingly told by the new director Gokul. Entire first half holds interest despite the slow pace. The pre-interval scene of Karthi realizing that he is actually trapped in this fort and real ghost lies here is freakishly funny. Karthi with his performance here makes the scene highly entertaining. This is major highlight of the movie.

While the first half of the movie is set up well with the point – a fraud exorcist attracting real ghost. This is very interesting line. But when the story turns to this soul that is trapped in this fort, it turns out to be dreary. The pace slackens further and the so-called flashback ends up as a synopsis of Arundhati and Pasupathi track from Anushka starrer horror-revenge drama “Arundhati”.

Although the second half has excellent production values with lavish sets and decent Visual effects, the proceedings don’t glue us to the screen because of the déjà-vu feeling that episode gives us. Also the director seems to have confused how to package it – horror comedy or period revenge drama. The confusion makes two halves of the movie looking quite different to each other.

Still, the film works to some extent due to the excellent performance by Karthi and Nayanathara. Karthi as Kashmora and Raju Nayak has given his best performance. But we like his comic timing more as it has worked the best. Nayanathara in her brief role as Rani Rathna is terrific, she has right costumes, look and her performance is equally good. Among other cast members it is Vivek who makes an impact.

“Kaashmora” has rich production values and high technical standards. Cinematography by Om Prakash, artwork by Rajeevan and VFX team have put in their best output. But music by Santosh Narayan is pretty lukewarm. Runtime is another drawback, for a story like this 164-mins runtime is wrong idea. Director Gokul has shown his command in extracting comedy but his screenplay lacks effectiveness.

Bottom-line: Kaashmora, a horror-comedy, works in parts. The first half is highly entertaining with right dose of comedy and satire. How babas and the likes con people with their claims is told in funny way with the character of Kaashmora in the first half. But second half doesn’t hold the same interest. It falls flat thereafter. On the whole, it is an average movie with rich production values.