Maya Movie Hot Nayan oneman Movie
Maya Movie Review
CAST: Nayanthara, Aari, Mime Gopi, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli, Amzath, Reshmi Menon, Robo Shankar
DIRECTION: Ashwin Saravanan
GENRE: Horror
DURATION: 2 hours 20 minutes
SYNOPSIS: An artist realizes that the story that he is illustrating, about a ghost who was an inmate of an asylum in a forest, could be real. Meanwhile, an aspiring actress takes up a challenge to watch a horror film all alone in the theatre at night. How are these storylines connected?
REVIEW: Maya begins in classic horror movie fashion. Vasanth Sridhar, an artist, tells his friend about the story he is illustrating for — a ghost story from the past involving an inmate in a mental asylum located inside Mayavanam, a forest. He tells how the ghost, Maya, haunts people who call her out and as the disbelieving friend does so to prove that it's all fiction, we see a shadowy figure. We are then told this was a prank but later, a character points out to a smoky form in the video sending a chill down our spine. The action then cuts to Apsara, an aspiring actress and a single mom, who is under financial trouble. She decides to take up the challenge thrown by the director of a new horror film to watch it all alone in a theatre at night. This, despite a distributor dying mysteriously after trying to do the same! Ashwin Saravanan skillfully connects these stories and when we get the revelation on who the ghost actually is and what it is after, it brings a lump to our throats.
Nayanthara has been Maya's biggest calling card but the actress is both a plus and a minus to the film. There is no doubt that she gives it the star wattage needed to create a buzz around the film and make people want to watch it, but her performance is a bland, generic one (even when her character is in a life-threatening situation, her face remains blank and made up) that does nothing to enhance the inherent drama in the script. Replace her with another star and the film will remain as effective as it is now. This is especially felt in the final portions — she makes the audience feel sympathetic towards the character, but a better actress would have made the audience feel they have a connection with the character. The director also relies too much on jump scares and cliched horror tropes (a ghost with long-flowing hair, headless torso and so on) and these become predictable after some time. The stretch in the forest in the second half, especially, feels overlong and repetitive after a point. The film is also overtly art directed (Ramalingam) — the arty-chic feel of Vasanth's flat or the poster-filled walls of Apsara's house never give the feel of real places and resemble something straight out of TV commercials. The score (Ron Yohaan), which constantly keys in how we should be feeling, takes away the impact of a few scenes and a minimalist score would have worked even better.
But these are minor quibbles and the film is otherwise technically competent. The cinematography (Sathyan Sooryan) superbly captures the haunting shadows that trees cast in the night. One of the plots is in black and white while the other is in colour and even though the scenes play out paralley, the nifty editing (TS Suresh) ensures that it is seemless on screen. The sound design (Sachin Sudhakaran and Hari Haran) is also a huge plus (a scene that takes place with Thiruda Thiruda's Chandralekha song in the background is a highlight) and offsets the overdone score to an extent. These elements combine to whip up an atmosphere of dread that is unsettling for most parts of the film.
And for a debut effort, there is such assuredness in the filmmaking of Maya. Just as Karthik Subbaraj did with Pizza, Ashwin Saravanan seems to have made Maya as a showreel to prove that he has got cinematic flair. Unlike Subbaraj's horror thriller that was a neat feat of pulling the rug from under the audience's feet, Saravanan's Maya is a straight-out horror movie, an aspect that it shares with Demonte Colony. However, there is also genuinely moving emotional drama that recalls Mysskin's Pissasu. But Maya is wholly original and cerebral as well. Even after the film has ended, we keep thinking about it, replaying the scenes in our mind and thinking about the inventiveness in how the plot lines are brought together. And that is its real success.
Maya: A horror film that’s loyal to the genre
It’s not among the best Tamil horror films, but nevertheless, is better than the masala horror films that we have been subjected to recently.
When reviewing Strawberry last week, I wondered how long we’d have to wait to see an inventive horror film again. Well, the answer, it turns out, is just a week. Maya is an exercise in both horror and mise en abyme. It’s one of those rare Tamil films, like Uttama Villain, that you can talk so much about on your way back home. I’m glad I caught it in Devi Paradise; the long, spiral pathway on the way back provided plenty of time in which to reflect on the story. It’s not a perfect one (perfect stories, among other things, are those that can only happen when they do; you’re not at all sure why the big reveal in Maya didn’t occur earlier in the protagonist’s life), but still complex enough to be admired. At a time when horror films are a dime a dozen, and intent only on generating easy laughs, it’s a relief to see Maya stray. Director Ashwin Saravanan is content with telling you an interesting story, and with the exception of a rather off-key background song, he does so without distractions.
The film alternates between two stories (one shown in black and white, and the other in colour): One’s about Vasanth (Aari), an artist, who learns about a forest called Mayavanam, and how it was once home to a mental asylum, in which patients — one among them, Maya Mathews — were used as guinea pigs for horrific scientific experiment; and the other’s about Apsara (Nayanthara), an orphan mother of a one-year-old baby, and an actress struggling to make ends meet. As is the case with such films, both stories eventually converge at a point.
Right at the very beginning, there’s a scene that’s constructed very differently from what we are usually used to seeing. Apsara, through her friend (Lakshmi Priyaa), gets an opportunity to show her acting mettle to the director of a horror film. The director tells her that the situation is about a pregnant woman poisoning her husband after learning about his infidelity. While another movie would probably have had Apsara crying her heart out or making a spiteful speech upon the body of her husband, she underplays it; and not unconvincingly as Siddharth does in Kaaviya Thalaivan in a similar scene. Apsara radiates gloom throughout the film, and is key in retaining the sombre atmosphere throughout the film.
No Spoilers in this Maya Movie Review ***
Debutant Ashwin Saravanan offers a multi-layered ghostly tale with style and clarity. When a group of passionate technicians come together to make a film, the soaring passion of theirs is evident. In case of Maya, cinematographer Sathyan Sooriyan wins the race though the other technicians are just a nanometer away.
Maya takes a special spot in the victory stand for having employed Digital Interface (DI) for the core purpose of storytelling. In the course of deep thinking, mere techniques can become the narrator too! Maya stands as a substantial example for the same.
The director has indeed taken advantage of the potential that Nayanthara has as a performer. There is not one frame in which we see her stepping out of her character. Dialogue heavy or light, this character mouths it in a consistent manner. Lakshmi Priya Chandramouli shines even when her character as Nayanthara’s friend holds a subtle impact.
Aari, Mime Gopi and Amzath Khan reassure the audience of their capability as actors. Robo Shankar’s character is the only character that loses clarity. The director decides to give few seamless hints to the audience and if one manages to spot them, they are sure to like the film more.
Ashwin’s approach as a narrator gives satisfaction to the viewer as he has respected the intelligence quotient that his audience holds. He refrains from spoon feeding and bombarding them with recollection shots. He smartly lays down the information and lets the viewer comprehend and join the dots, turning audience into an active participator in the course of the movie watching experience. Perhaps he could have cut short the movie by few minutes, specifically the forest sequence just before the climax.
Ron Ethan Yohan understands his role well as the music director and plays the key role in giving a fulfilling experience. Good production and sound design along with cuts handled well by TS Suresh, make Maya stands as a gutsy watch. Beware of few extremely high points that might give a sudden pump of blood to your brain. Afterall, that's why a horror film is made!
Ashwin’s approach as a narrator gives satisfaction to the viewer as he has respected the intelligence quotient that his audience holds. He refrains from spoon feeding and bombarding them with recollection shots. He smartly lays down the information and lets the viewer comprehend and join the dots, turning audience into an active participator in the course of the movie watching experience. Perhaps he could have cut short the movie by few minutes, specifically the forest sequence just before the climax.
Ron Ethan Yohan understands his role well as the music director and plays the key role in giving a fulfilling experience. Good production and sound design along with cuts handled well by TS Suresh, make Maya stands as a gutsy watch. Beware of few extremely high points that might give a sudden pump of blood to your brain. Afterall, that's why a horror film is made!
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