Aavi Kumar (2015)

Considering the frequency in which horror films are being churned out in the Tamil film industry, we have been seeing one horror movie being released almost every week. Aavi Kumar is this week's quota. And it firmly belongs in the list of easily ignorable films that we have seen in this genre. The premise is interesting enough. A medium (Udhaya) tells a skeptical cop (Nasser) in public that that he has arrested the wrong man for a murder. This attracts the attention of the real killers, who start tailing him. Meanwhile, he moves into an apartment, where he meets an amnesiac ghost (Kanika), who refuses to believe that she is dead. He, of course, falls in love with her, and offers to help her find out her identity, and in the process, they realize that she might hold the key in exposing the gang who committed the murder. In the right hands, this could have been an engaging mystery that thrilled us with every revelation. What we get is a tonally deaf film which goes about narrating the plot points in a bland and cliched fashion. Even a game of connecting the dots would be more absorbing than this one. It is that kind of film where a villain who comes across something on TV that could incriminate him, shoots at the TV in anger. It is that kind of film where the heroine doesn't speak but screams every line at a high pitch. It is that kind of film which uses a quality actor like Nasser to make it appear credible. It is that kind of film which realizes that its main plot and leads are not working and decides to introduce comic characters (Ramdoss and Devadarshini as a childless couple who go to the doctor to seek help) in its final act to at least make it funny. It is that kind of film which feels compelled to use Mano Bala and Jagan to speak double entendres in the name of comedy. It is that kind of film which makes you think you could have spent your time doing better things.