Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana movie review: Diganth's dark comedy has a few laughs, but not enough

Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana movie story: When IT professional Lohith (Diganth) makes his way to his ‘good friend’ Pooja’s (Nidhi Subbaiah) 9th floor apartment undetected and avoiding all CCTV cameras, for, what one assumes is a booty call, things go horribly wrong and she ends up dead. As cops descend on the apartment complex and begin investigating Pooja’s death, Lohith attempts to get away by sneaking into the adjacent flat, where, he soon finds out, he’s fallen into a deeper hole than he already was in.

Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana movie review: A dark comedy suspense thriller – that’s how Diganth’s latest, Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana has been described. The dark comedy here is centred on the utter insensitivity of the protagonist when bodies start piling up around him, making one wonder if the focus shifted to establishing him as a sociopath, rather than just an unlucky left-hander, who stumbled into the wrong house at the wrong time.

It is supposedly okay for Diganth, as Lohith, to have literally no reaction other than how to save his ass, after his friend Pooja dies, as well as to have a drink and try and forget everything with a character who’s just slit someone’s throat, among others. And yet, at the very end, director Samarth also hopes that audiences will feel a pang when it’s revealed that there’s been another innocent casualty as a result of all the mayhem that’s unleashed across apartments 906 and 907. Well, it doesn’t quite work that way!

Diganth is at the centre of this tale, as is debutant Dhanu Harsha, both of who have done their best within the limited framework of the narrative, but are let down by the writing. For what it’s worth, Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana starts well and shows promise in the first half, but thereafter, it is all downhill. Nidhi Subbaiah’s much-publicized reunion with her Pancharangi co-star doesn’t last more than a few minutes and does not offer her much. Radhika Narayan, in a cameo, gets more to chew on.

By the end of the movie, Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana had me wondering if I really saw the humour in any of the tragic or serious situations – in this case, deaths – presented in the movie. Not only did I not find it funny enough to elicit a laugh, but it also didn’t seem unsettling. What Samarth does manage is in presenting two morally flawed characters, one of who eventually gets a karma payback, while the other gets a lesson in suicide prevention.

Also read: Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana’s Diganth: When I injured my eye, the actress responsible did not even visit me in the hospital 

In a recent conversation with OTTplay, Diganth had said he’s been unfortunate with his choice of films , even though he’s been giving each his best. Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana will likely join this list of films.

Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana movie verdict: If you can find humour in the absurd and won’t look for logic in a scene about unlocking a dead identical twin’s phone with the dead person’s face, while the other one looks on, Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana might still work for you.