Like how Ashwin Saravanan presented a story about trauma healing in the form of a slasher thriller in Game Over (brilliance in genre bending, I would say), he gives a horror story this time where the demonic possession can be metaphorically linked to the COVID virus — The struggle with the loneliness and the mental health that it brought. The story involves a girl being possessed by a demon; the people in her family being affected; everyone fighting to get rid of it and save the girl; things getting back to normal on day 14 (end of quarantine) after the exorcism process. The idea is yet again brilliant. I love Ashwin’s thought process and how he has been exploring the horror genre, giving a new face to it. I could not have ‘connect’-ed more with the part of the screenplay involving happenings over a video telephony platform — having explored the platform (zoom) to significant lengths during lockdown. I was thinking of how effectively a team, sitting in their own spaces, could pull off an online production in horror genre using the platform.
Now, does Connect effectively use the brilliant ideas and metaphors to weave an exciting narrative? Sadly, no…! The whole experience is quite underwhelming. The story takes a generic route in handling the challenge, by day 14 (in the story), the viewer knows all will be well and everyone is going to go back home unscathed. It is not about the predictability about the characters’ fate, but the very predictable nature of the journey itself. With the script not panning out to give anything exciting, performances from actors like Sathyaraj becomes quite jarring and over dramatic. It kept throwing me off whenever I saw the actor crying on the screen looking at his daughter and grand daughter. I couldn’t connect with the mother’s plea to save her daughter. There is a sense of confusion about Nayanthara’s character sketch at places — on why the character is treating the situation lightly when the shit is already beginning to hit the roof, especially after the knife incident. One can relate to the mindset of how one doesn’t want to involve the elders in the house and make them worried, but I feel the mother character was way too much into denial. The build up doesn’t come gradual and is kind of sudden. But sure, as an actor, Nayanthara is fine here, like how she is always seeming to be better under Ashwin’s direction. There is a nice nod to this actor-director collaboration with a photo frame from Maya hanging in Ammu’s room.
The production quality is fantastic. It is obvious that this is by no means a mediocre craft, in the way it’s setup. But there is a mild layer of artificiality right from the start. I was kind of dreading that the girl might fetch the guitar and sing to her dying father, making it more dramatic. But thankfully no.
There are some effective sequences here and there like when the other two characters also impacted during the virtual exorcism process. The knock at the door in Sathyaraj’s hotel room is very well done. There is an interesting shadow play towards the end with the shadow of the rosary beads with the cross falling on the girl, visually depicting the win. There is a nice sequence with a kid playing with a mask at the start. I liked the look his mom gives when he is creating a menace.
Not every movie has to be intelligent or convoluted, but with the way Ashwin has set his standards with his previous movies and the room it leaves for treating the story better leads to the disappointment. With a brilliant idea, I really wished the script equally topped up. It looks like they just got contented and excited by the birth of a great idea alone.
Cinema Paradesio 