Balloon Tamil Movie

Feature Film | 2017 | UA | Drama, Horror
Critics:
Debutante director Sinish, has attempted to scare the audience with cliches instead of scares.
Dec 30, 2017 By Baranidharan Sivasankaran


Another horror movie on the block, whose debut director, Sinish, surreptitiously surrenders himself during the opening credits by declaring the list of movies which served as an inspiration to make this one.


There was a single aspect from the pre-release buzz that kept me hooked. It was Jai's clown makeover with balloons in the background. I was expecting a much more sinister plot with balloons serving as a motif. It was a motif indeed, literally, a weak plot with a bloated narrative filled with air!


Director Jeeva (Jai) who is determined to direct a movie before having a kid, travels the whole nine yards to hunt for a haunted place, spend some time there with his wife (Anjali) and friends (Karthik and Yogi Babu) before coming up with a plot for a horror movie as demanded by a producer. Predictably, all of them experience the real horror and a backstory that links Jeeva's past life.


The posters of balloon almost gave away the entire story. If one were to follow a majority of the horror film formats and juxtapose with the movie posters, the dots can be easily connected. The things left to answer were how and why. More simply, how the ghost became a ghost and why.


Combine the above with some uninspired acting and cliched scares, you are left to fend for nothing. Of course, Yogi's funny lines came in handy at times. But his portions unnecessarily bordered on indigestion and scenes of him constantly searching for a loo, which was quite archaic. However, I enjoyed the contemporary whack on Yogi's on-screen wardrobes. The best of the lot was his T-shirt bearing the Tamil letter 'Soo' as in 'Superman'!


Anjali, Jai and Janani seemed to be reluctant in performing their respective roles! Somehow, the narrative too didn't aide them with much to deliver. The ghost makeup too has become standard with blacked out eye sockets with white eyeballs, wild hair and milky facials. So, there's nothing markedly different in that aspect as well.


The villains who were seen in Chennai, for no reason were seen in Ooty. Of course, the story demands a revenge on them; but why show them in Chennai first? The twist at the end, wherein the director seems to take a dig at the fringe elements who seek to attain mileage at the expense of creating controversies for a film's release, felt like a sort of an afterthought!


Director Sinish's attempt at scaring the audiences with balloons and a clown seems a bit of a stretch, thanks to a plot that didn't have anything solid and a cliched narrative that we've seen in the past! Sad to watch the balloons being burst with naive little barbs!!

Baranidharan Sivasankaran

   

MOVIE REVIEWS