Aranmanai 3 movie review: Sundar C's horror-comedy, starring Arya and Raashi Khanna, is a humdrum fare

2/5

Story: The spirit of a dead girl starts bothering the family members who reside in a huge bungalow. They seek the help of a temple priest who possesses magical powers to tame the deadly ghost. He discovers the motive behind the revenge-seeking spirit, which in turn, leads to mind-boggling revelations.      

Review: First things first. Those who watched Aranmanai and Aranmanai 2 know what to expect from Aranmanai 3. The third installment in the popular franchise demands suspension of disbelief and enormous patience from the audience if at all they intend to sit through this supposedly horror-comedy. 

Director Sundar C, who has once again taken the tried-and-tested route, falters this time due to various reasons. Despite the movie featuring a bevy of talented artists, including Vivekh, Andrea, Yogi Babu, Manobala, Sampath, Vela Ramamoorthy and Nalini, apart from the leads played by Arya and Raashi Khanna, the story offers no scope for any of them to showcase a commendable performance.  

Like the previous installments of the franchise, Aranmanai 3, too, begins with a huge bungalow which is haunted by an unknown spirit. By now, we know how things work in the Aranmanai universe. In fact, a few minutes into the film, we can easily predict the further proceedings, including the climax. 

What remains unknown is the reason why the spirit turned revengeful and who all are going to be its prey one after another. But to make things unpredictable, we are fed with a slew of comedy tracks at regular intervals whenever the makers remember that it is a horror-comedy and hence funny sequences are required.

Saravanan (Arya), an electrician, enters the bungalow to rectify the wiring problems there, and starts dreaming of leading a life with Jyoti (Raashi Khanna), the heir of the palatial building, whom he also knows from childhood. The constant complaints from Jyoti's niece about the presence of a spirit there make her father (played by Sundar C himself) reach out to a temple priest only to discover that she was right. 

The priest, who possesses magical powers, tracks down the two-decade-old story behind the dangerous spirit, and starts working on ideas to tame it. But to his shock, the bungalow witnesses a couple of horrifying murders. Will he able to destroy the ghost?

With hardly any novelty in the plot and the screenplay as old as the hills, there isn't any moment in the film which leaves us terrified or in splits. Neither the horror portions work, nor the comedy tracks by Vivekh, Yogi Babu and Manobala. What is more saddening is how Arya's character is written. 

Apart from an ineffective twist which is related to his role, he doesn't have anything to do in the movie despite him playing the protagonist. Much similar to its sequels, Sundar C's character lands out of nowhere, and unsurprisingly, he knows everything about the ghost more than the ghost knows about itself.  

Andrea Jeremiah comes up with an earnest performance in the limited scope she has in the flashback episode. Sampath, as the antagonist, does what he usually does in films which have him play the ruthless guy. Vela Ramamoorthy is decent and handles a few expressions effectively. The music by C Sathya is okayish while UK Senthil Kumar's cinematography is enjoyable. The stunt sequences, which were claimed to be lavishly shot during its shooting, leave no impact.  

Verdict: With lack of innovative ideas and clumsy screenplay, the horror-comedy is outdated and tests patience after a point.  

Aranmanai 3 is streaming on Zee5.