Boomika movie review: Aishwarya Rajesh’s film has a great message but suffers from poor delivery

This loosely-written story is accompanied by one-note characterisation of the actors in the film, which makes the performances unrelatable. They do not create a personal connect with the audience.

Boomika

Story:

The film follows the story of a couple, architect Vidhu and psychologist Samyuktha, who move to a guest house along with their son in the middle of a forest to work on a real-estate project. They are also joined by Vidhu’s colleague and friend Gayathri known for eco-friendly projects and her sister. But little did they know that the house is haunted. Several eerie incidents start happening like Samyukta receives messages from Vidhu's dead friends, mobile phones work even when their batteries are dead and the usual, the perfectly functioning car conks off. Slowly, they learn about the mystery of the place. Why are these strange things happening is what forms the crux of the story.

Review:

With the recent UN Climate Change Report calling 'code red for humanity' due to rising global temperature, this film, streaming on Netflix, sure adds to the much-needed awareness campaign, citing the urgent need for environmental conservation. The film manages to create some impact and gets you to think of the damage that humankind is causing to the planet at the end.

The shots are beautifully filmed, kudos to its cinematographer Roberto Zazzara and director Rathindra R Prasad. The long shots of mist-laden hills of the Nilgiris, tea plantation of the 'Blue Mountains', and beautiful colonial buildings will make you want to visit the place yourself.

But the movie fails in its storytelling, narration and performances. The use of a ghost of an autistic girl metaphorically as Mother Earth, who communicates with the family via text messages, falls flat. It makes you wonder why is horror being used in the first place. The film has nothing new to offer in terms of horror. It has the usual story of a family moving to a haunted house with no proper power supply in the middle of a forest, occasional shots of doors opening and shutting with creaking sound effects and shots of attacks by wild dogs.

The way the film draws parallels between the ghost and nature to show the horror of climate change is intolerable. It doesn't do justice to the genre too as it fails to create the spooky effect with visuals. It seems more like the ghost trying to warn and not scare about the effects of environment exploitation. The last few shots showing bloodshed isn't scary but grody. The background score is good but already lets you in about the impending 'horror'.

This loosely-written story is accompanied by one-note characterisation of the actors in the film, which makes the performances unrelatable. They do not create a personal connect with the audience.

Aditi, played by Madhuri, fails to impress with her acting, or should we call it over-acting. Even considering that her character is dramatic who screams out of fear every now and then, she was over the top, so much so that she gets annoying and you may want to justify her getting slapped by her brother Vidhu, played by Gautham. The short-tempered and rude guy, Gautham is intolerable too with poor dialogue delivery. He fails miserably to get into the skin of the character. He at least had some good sarcastic dialogues but he couldn't land at the punchlines well.

Aishwarya and Surya Gayathri do a decent job but the poor storytelling overshadows the efforts they try to put in. The review is incomplete without the mention of Dharman, their helper at the mansion. He performed well as a go to person for everything. His hysterical laughter, glaring eyes and know-it-all facial expressions are one of the very few interesting things about the film.

Verdict:

The film doesn't live up to the expectations of the audience that it created with its trailer. It tries to convince the audience of the importance of environment conservation with stunning and aesthetic visuals but the narration fails to complement the efforts of the cinematographer. We'd also suggest that if you are planning to catch this movie for horror, then don't as it surely will disappoint you.

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Cast and Crew

Aishwarya Rajesh

Actor

Pavel Navageethan

Actor

Vidhu

Gowtham

Where To Watch