Aval Movie Review

Jenny; played by Anisha Angelina Victor, is a teenage girl who loves to read and know more about ‘paranormal’, ‘after life’ and ‘ghost’. How her mental stage affects two neighbouring families is the story of the movie. The movie starts with a shot of a Chinese building and characters, humming a song. I don’t want to talk more about it’s content, because nobody likes spoilers.

Asian horror films are heavily reliant on revenge type of plot while the Hollywood focuses on Christianity storyline. Recently we started seeing the mix of Hollywood and Asian horror plots into one, in order to make it look more Hollywoodish to feed the audience who is now very familiar with Hollywood horror flicks. The best example is Ezra, the Malayalam horror film starring Prithviraj and directed by Jay K. Aval is one of such kinda film. And yes, we see few scenes/ plot points of Aval very similar to Ezra.

A possessed girl speaking in a foreign tongue like in Fazil’s Manichithrathazhu and Ram Gopal Varma’s Bhoot, and Rupert Wainwright’s Stigmata, and the usage of various Christian symbols for scary scenes. Yes it’s been done before… and it’s still very scary. The director Milind Rau presents it in such a fresh way that you don’t feel watching the usual scary films. Aval is a step above the recent best Ezra, in freshness and scary moments. This is one of the very few ‘good’ paranormal films in Tamil.

Milind Rau prepared the scenes carefully along with the austere movements and shots, as the camera compositions and movements are very dynamic and interesting. The special effects are amazing and it is truly a terrifying spectacle. Last and the most powerful part of the film is the sound department. Some scenes are freaking terrifying. The pacing is impeccable for a horror movie. Aval takes viewers to thrilling ride that keeps you on the edge. First half is very much interesting, and the movie change to the real gear before climax.

Apart from the scary scenes, what impresses the most is the ‘romance’. The romantic portion is also very effective and Andrea Jeremiah and Siddharth are efficient in their roles. We can feel the ‘real’ romance between them unlike the clichéd ‘romantic portions’ of other ghost movies. Plenty of lip-locking shots, but nothing looked neither vulgar nor forced. The actors were feed with the movie’s aura and did a perfect job. Anisha Angelina Victor, the young actress who was targeted by the presence in the film is absolutely fantastic and stole the scenes.

Aval is a supernatural horror in the hands of a skilled director.