Produced by Priya Atlee, Sudham Sundaram, Jayaram and K Poorna Chandra, ANDHAGHAARAM gets a Netflix release and is written and directed by Vignarajan.
A supernatural thriller, ANDHAGHAARAM is a slow burner that hardly loses focus and stays faithful to the script slowly building up the suspense block by block. Despite the trepidation taking almost three long hours to unravel, the viewer willingly submits to the cause as the suspense blocks are neatly arranged with scarce space until the discovery happens. It is towards the end that the pieces tumble in a rather hurried manner making the 180 minutes of viewing a tad tiring, mainly because the villain could be spotted an hour before. The complex narration keeps the viewer hooked throughout and the wonderful cast elevate the mood of the film pretty high. It would take a lot of concentration to keep track of the happening on screen. Especially towards the last part as it looks like the once organized traffic junction blew the lights off and it takes some effort to comprehend the mayhem and the crisscross.
Arjun Das, Vinoth Kishan deliver amazing performances with wonderful support from Pooja Ramachandran and Misha Ghoshal.
Technically this thriller is a treat, it is strikingly different from the usual thriller “effects” and yet is as intense as it can get. Edwin SAkay’s cinematography is fantastic. Sathyaraj Natarajay makes the 170 minutes feel tight with his editing. Art and special effects deserve mention. Dialogues are good. Casting is superb and for a debutant director, it can be boldly proclaimed Vignarajan is on stage, watch out.
ANDHAGHAARAM has its flaws and yet it arguably is perhaps the one of the top few finest thriller films of Kollywood in the last ten years, for it charts out its own path bereft of clichés and templates. Vignarajan is someone we should be closely watching in the coming years.
ANDHAGHAARAM – ANDHAM !!!
3.25/5
B.U.Shreesha
