The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Horror goes missing here

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 15, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Horror goes missing here

STRIKE A POSE: Charmme in ‘Mantra’.

Film: Mantra

Cast: Sivaji, Charmme

Direction: Tulasiram

Mantra starring Charmme and Sivaji is a horror flick revolving around a haunted house, a locked room, and some inexplicable deaths.

There are hardly any chilling moments except for the heroine attempting to pull out the knife that has been pierced into her thigh. The film is about Charmme (Mantra) who wants to sell her haunted house to repay her father’s debts.

The filmmaker tries to do something creative here and the entertainment ends with Sivaji’s dialogues pre-interval.

Mantra is by and large dominated by the uninteresting shenanigans of several wholly uninteresting characters and the usually silly vibe only worsens as the movie progresses. The curiosity levels are heightened towards the end only to be dropped like a hot potato.

It is Sivaji all the way and the flabby Charmme struts around with pierced ears and skimpy clothes.

The director should have done his homework well to convince the audience of the climax even if he had to show a bi-polar disorder instead of demon. Tulasiram’s perfunctory work doesn’t do the film any favour and the audience.

It just keeps you wondering why Telugu film directors don’t conjure up any scary moments any more in horror films.

Y. SUNITA CHOWDHARY

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