Gu Malayalam Movie
With a healthy dose of nostalgia about childhood, this film's constant premise is an ancestral house and its surroundings. Going by its outer layers, 'Gu' is a horror flick though it gives a heavy emphasis on the power of a child's imagination about supernatural forces. Debutant director Manu Radhakrishnan's script shies away from creating usual fripperies of a horror film even as the plot focuses on the possessed person. In my view, this movie stands close to the sensibilities and fantasies of children rather than the pragmatic minds of elders. Interestingly, there is hardly any contrived attempt to trigger spooky moments while trying to unravel the mystery related to Gulikan.
There is nothing afresh in store for viewers as far as the storyline is concerned. Sai, played by Saiju Kurup, represents a man with remorse about his childhood. His mental conflict rakes up his memories about his deceased mother. Saiju has shown extreme justice to his role mired in sentimental maze. Apart from this, 'Gu' is devoid of absorbing elements and short on actual scary moments. Quite often, the familiar content struggles to transcend the tepid shores.
A techie in Bengaluru, Sai comes to his ancestral home along with his wife Nimisha (Ashwathy Manoharan) and daughter Minna (Deva Nandha) to spend the vacation with his relatives and their kids. While reaching there, his uncle (Manianpilla Raju) reveals that the family members are under the spell of a spirit, called 'Gulikan.' Parvathy (Aneena Angela), a teenager in the family, is deemed to be possessed by a spirit and she keeps herself aloof in that old house. From the conversations of elders, Minna becomes curious about Gulikan and she constantly asks doubts about it to Sai, who flatly denounces the traditional beliefs and rituals as superstition.
Sai's brother Mithran (Niranj Manianpilla Raju), who is an Ayurveda doctor, arrives at the house and he becomes a good companion for children. Then a date is fixed for the rite of exorcism to expel demons from the body of Parvathy. Then the film narrates the aftermath of the exorcism and how it affects the family members. 'Gu' becomes a pointless horror drama due to its inability to create meaningful scenes especially after the introduction of Niranj. It is hard to digest an Ayurveda doctor becoming so petrified by silly spooky scenes. A lot of time has been invested in delineating the bond between Mithran and the children. After a certain point, such sequences give the effect of digressing from the main thread.
'Gu' is brimmed with innocence of childhood when child artistes including Deva Nandha become natural performers. The scenic visuals in the rustic milieu created by Chandrakanth Madhavan and the VFX sequences are the real positive factors of the film that apparently pants for a solid content. Jonathan Bruce has given a commendable BGM that keeps the proceedings a tad interesting. It is a conventional horror flick that retreads all the traits of the genre but in a restrained manner. Spooky moments are few and far between as the film largely gratifies the sensibilities of children.
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