Aghathiyaa Movie Review: Jiiva stars in Pa Vijay’s colorful film that turns out as underwhelming horror fantasy

2/5

Aghathiyaa Movie Plot:

Aghathiyaa (Jiiva) comes from humble background and is now an art director in movie industry. After spending bucketload of money building a set in Pondicherry, his producer backs off and cancels shooting last minute. Not knowing what to do, Aghathiyaa’s girlfriend Veena (Raashi Khanna) gives an idea to turn the set into a scary house and make business out of it. But what happens when eerie things really begin to take place and Aghathiyaa gets involved?

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Aghathiyaa Movie Review:

A movie set turns scary house turns haunted palace is the one-liner of Aghathiyaa, a film which brims with special effects and animations at almost every frame you pause. Filled with almost all the hues and shades of colours, and graphics, Aghathiyaa is a film that specifically changes tastes depending on what age group you fall under. If you have a child-like curiosity to get carried away with visual spectacles and colours keep coming, Aghathiyaa is a treat that way. But if you have consumed enough by worldly knowledge and look out for some logic and screenplay that offers more than just beautiful frames, then Aghathiyaa can be a shallow story of English medicine versus Siddha medicine.

Right from the start, Aghathiyaa has many things going on. We are shown the titular character coming from humble background and is inclined towards art. As he grows up to become a passionate production designer, so much so that he is willing to erect sets for the films he is working with his own investment, the first half tries to test the patience with plenty of jump scares and camera angles that want you to believe that the palace is indeed haunted. And then comes the second half, when the story takes the plot about war between local and foreign medicine. Arjun Sarja comes as a highly knowledgeable physician who can cure any disease with Siddha medicine. His sophistication comes from practise of local medicine, even as he mingles with top brass of the French rulers and hardly seen in any local attires. As much as there had been no effort to name a Siddha doctor as Siddharthan, so is the film which barely is able to hold s cohesive storyline. There is horror, some political ideologies thrown from time to time through dialogues, more fantasy elements, and a war between good versus evil becomes the climax. But even with so much running, Aghathiyaa offers a bland experience if you are looking for a story with lazy choices.

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With a major chunk of the film concentrating more on the flashback, and the times when the French ruled Pondicherry, Aghathiyaa has lot of unnecessary elements going on. In times when the attention span of audience is reducing and minute details of films are inserted only to have pay-offs, Aghathiyaa spends more time to build a lavish setup with hollow interiors. One of them being a French princess being named Jacquline Poovizhi only because her mother was the one who translated Bible in Tamil during the colonial era. Even without this piece of information, the story of Aghathiyaa doesn’t budge, and there are several other instances which makes Aghathiyaa a shallow story with lethargic making. There is nothing exceptional in Aghathiyaa’s music either, which is rendered by Yuvan Shankar Raja, except for the background score which appears a unique choice to show the battle between the good and evil. And speaking of technicality, one could also call Aghathiyaa as a brutal abuse of Mocobot camera shots, which does not really add up to the experience.

Aghathiyaa Movie Verdict:

Aghathiyaa, may be a commercial entertainer catering to children for its visuals, but the makers had to definitely look beyond that in making a script that deserves to be well-packaged. With done to death ideologies like going local is global, Aghathiyaa misses the mark by several miles when it chooses to work only on its visual marvel and easily forgets on script work.