Sabdham Movie Review: A not so sound horror thriller
Sabdham Movie Review: Critics Rating: 2.5 stars, click to give your rating/review,Sabdham remains intriguing until the first half when along with its protagonist, we, too, remain puz
Critic's Rating: 2.5/5
Sabdham Movie Synopsis: A paranormal investigator is called to find out if a series of deaths happening at a college really due to the supernatural.
Sabdham Movie Review: In 2009, Arivazhagan and Aadhi surprised audiences with their sleekly made horror thriller Eeram. In Sabdham, their reunion, after 16 years, they once again take up the same genre - if the supernatural element involved water in Eeram, here, it is in the form of sound - but with middling results.
The plot revolves around a couple of deaths, seemingly by suicide, that happen in a medical college. With rumours of the supernatural involved, the management hires Ruben Vaidhyalingam (Aadhi), a paranormal investigator. As Ruben begins his investigation, he realises that there's a connection between the deaths and Avanthika, a house surgeon and lecturer at the place, who doesn't believe in ghosts.
Sabdham remains intriguing until the first half when along with its protagonist, we, too, remain puzzled about what's happening. The deaths are grotesque enough, there's a constant sense of dread and an element of mystery. And fittingly, it all reaches a high point near the intermission when the paranormal activity reaches a crescendo. Arivazhagan builds this portion effectively and we daringly blacks out the screen for a few minutes and all we hear are sounds that add a chilling effect to the sequence.
But rather than elevating what we had seen before, the post-interval portions soon devolve into something that's fairly generic. The writing doesn't build up on the mysteries and turns very convenient and routine, and soon, we find ourselves in a melodrama involving saintly figures, evil researchers, black magic and revenge. This is the kind of film that seems to believe that having chapter titles and names of places in screen-sized fonts will give it an air of seriousness. And it also thinks it's easy for audiences to accept an antagonist who pops up just minutes before the climax! What this actually does is make us forget this narrative and look back fondly on Parthen Rasithen, where we got the same two performers in roles that are total contrasts to what we see them in here.
For a film dealing with sound, the sound design, too, seems inconsistent - very effective one moment and loud in places; Thaman's overpowering score hardly offers space for silence. Also, beyond presenting us with a protagonist who has some special gadgets, the fact that he's a paranormal investigator doesn't really add much to the character, but there's conviction in Aadhi's performance that makes us overlook this fact.
Visually, too, we are in a world of heavily blurred frames and tacky visual effects that might have been apt in the Aranmanai or Kanchana universes. Perhaps this was due to budget constraints, but given that it is from a filmmaker who delivered one of the sickest-looking horror films, it feels underwhelming.
Sabdham Movie Review: In 2009, Arivazhagan and Aadhi surprised audiences with their sleekly made horror thriller Eeram. In Sabdham, their reunion, after 16 years, they once again take up the same genre - if the supernatural element involved water in Eeram, here, it is in the form of sound - but with middling results.
The plot revolves around a couple of deaths, seemingly by suicide, that happen in a medical college. With rumours of the supernatural involved, the management hires Ruben Vaidhyalingam (Aadhi), a paranormal investigator. As Ruben begins his investigation, he realises that there's a connection between the deaths and Avanthika, a house surgeon and lecturer at the place, who doesn't believe in ghosts.
Sabdham remains intriguing until the first half when along with its protagonist, we, too, remain puzzled about what's happening. The deaths are grotesque enough, there's a constant sense of dread and an element of mystery. And fittingly, it all reaches a high point near the intermission when the paranormal activity reaches a crescendo. Arivazhagan builds this portion effectively and we daringly blacks out the screen for a few minutes and all we hear are sounds that add a chilling effect to the sequence.
But rather than elevating what we had seen before, the post-interval portions soon devolve into something that's fairly generic. The writing doesn't build up on the mysteries and turns very convenient and routine, and soon, we find ourselves in a melodrama involving saintly figures, evil researchers, black magic and revenge. This is the kind of film that seems to believe that having chapter titles and names of places in screen-sized fonts will give it an air of seriousness. And it also thinks it's easy for audiences to accept an antagonist who pops up just minutes before the climax! What this actually does is make us forget this narrative and look back fondly on Parthen Rasithen, where we got the same two performers in roles that are total contrasts to what we see them in here.
For a film dealing with sound, the sound design, too, seems inconsistent - very effective one moment and loud in places; Thaman's overpowering score hardly offers space for silence. Also, beyond presenting us with a protagonist who has some special gadgets, the fact that he's a paranormal investigator doesn't really add much to the character, but there's conviction in Aadhi's performance that makes us overlook this fact.
Visually, too, we are in a world of heavily blurred frames and tacky visual effects that might have been apt in the Aranmanai or Kanchana universes. Perhaps this was due to budget constraints, but given that it is from a filmmaker who delivered one of the sickest-looking horror films, it feels underwhelming.
