‘Aranmanai 3’ review: A horror-comedy that takes a lot of spins and turns directionless

at a point in beautiful c Aranmanai 3A pair of brown tattered hands holds the hands of Abhishek (Yogi Babu) and Sigmani (Vivekh). Abhishek and Sigamani know that the house they live in is haunted. Yet they prefer to hold hands with emotion to play ‘Ring a Ring O’ Roses. One of them sings the wrong one, “Ringa a ring o moses”. Another character fixes them,”Ayo, Adu ‘Moses’ Illa, ‘Rose’ (It’s not ‘Moses’, it’s ‘Rose’)”.

Horror-comedy, as a genre, is strange – to borrow from Vimal’s line Kalakalappu (also directed by Sundar C) – Combination of Sakkara Pongal And Vada Curry. If the film uses horror elements to make you laugh, that’s fine. NS horror movie chain do that, For instance. But a film that goes out to scare and make its audience laugh, ends up leaving a stone unturned. And, most of the Tamil movies do not manage this balancing act.

Aranmanai 3 No, either. In one scene, the vengeful spirit hero uses his telekinetic powers to murder Jyoti (Rashi Khanna). In another, it messes with Abhishek and Sigmani. Then how can we be afraid of it? The film attempts to create horror with hackneyed horror elements (moving eyes in the picture, the blood-soaked pregnant silence of a monstrous figure, children interacting with an invisible entity, etc.) but these scenes are constantly extended comedic sets. is interpolated with fragments that are part of the plot.

Even these set pieces fail to entertain (my thigh-slapping neighbor might disagree). Nice to see Vivek on screen again. His encounters with Yogi Babu and Manobala contain some laughter. But this was also due to the actors’ appearance, mannerisms and the delivery of dialogues. The lines and conditions were odd. Yogi Babu usually calls his comedy sidekick, something like-Moonji (In this film he calls his fellow thief Manobala as ‘Bally-Moonji’ (the face of the lizard). There is Nalini, who does Tik Tok videos (just supposed to be funny). Vivek plays the role of a sad virgin , who has not had sex with his wife even after 15 years of marriage.

There is also a sub-plot of Saravanan (Arya) who likes Jyoti. Saravanan is an electrician and Jyoti’s childhood friend. Apart from these details, we don’t know anything else about him. Arya plays only a cameo in the film in this sense. He comes and goes at random points. He is at the center of the supernatural drama that appears in the second part. But we don’t even know why he, the castle’s electrician, is there in the first place. Because the film moves from character to character, it is difficult to care about anyone.

After all these rounds, finally the film starts telling the story of ghost in the second half. But this is also nothing new: a wealthy ruthless landowner murders his wife and her newborn child. Wife and newborn daughter become spirits to play murder, intimidate, and fool with comedy sidekicks.

There’s also a lot of black magic, poor VFX, dazzling background score and (of course), a climax involving Amman in the second half. Thankfully, there are no post-credits shots (like a hand coming out of the grave) that promise a sequel. but you never know. Now, this is actually quite scary.