Directed by one of the exceptionally talented directors of the present era, PISAASU (Tamil) is a Mysskin film, moving ahead of the usual horror films in both technique and emotional appeal based on an unusually realistic premise.
Beginning with a road accident, it revolves around a young boy’s encounter with a ghost, who seems to have taken shelter in his apartment and now willing to communicate for a reason. The initial moments of the film are witty with a pinch of humour but the progression gradually turns it into an emotional paranormal thriller or a distinctive horror film, not offering the typical jump-scares or the predictable moves.
Here Mysskin avoids the clichés, presenting a novel horror drama based on an emotional storyline where you will actually find difficult to hate the ugly ghost. Introducing limited characters apart from the lead, including a lonely-shattered father, a daughter and a feeling of love surrounding them all, PISAASU is actually much more about love or emotions instead of scares, fear or horror. Though the love-angle incorporated in the storyline isn’t that convincing (logically) and could have been easily avoided, yet the film scores and successfully manages to impress because of its extraordinary concept, narration, shot-taking, chilling background score, music, sound design and tight editing with the duration of less than two hours.
Featuring faces without any baggage of stardom or a set image, it becomes largely convincing due to its raw performances too along the much enjoyable technical excellence. In other words PISSASU is a dark, haunting movie with a difference, loaded with lots of deep emotions that deserves to be given a chance due to its unique vision.
Interestingly, watching it in the present year (2018) it first remined me of (the once maestro of his art) Ram Gopal Varma, then a famous English film GHOST made more than two decades back in 1990 and later Kannada film U-TURN made two years post the film in 2016. The recently released Hindi film NANU KI JAANU (2018) featuring Abhay Deol is also a pathetic remake of PISAASU and should be seen to study how a novel script gets ruined in its forced adaptation. However that obviously should be done (as a case study) post experiencing the original Tamil PISAASU directed by Mysskin, who is known for pushing the limits, breaking the set rules.
Ratings : 3.5 / 5 (Including brownie points for its truly enjoyable technical finesse)
Tags :
PISAASU (Tamil / 2014) Review by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, Indian Worth Watching Horror Films, Tamil Films Reviews by Bobby Sing, Indian Regional Language Gems, Not To Be Missed Indian Regional Language Films List at bobbytalkscinema.com
