Bhoothakaalam review: Revathy, Shane Nigam deliver a physiological doozy

Vinu begins to see and hear things that nobody else can. When things get really horrifying, he seeks help from his loved ones but in vain. His mother, girlfriend and friends are limited by their inability to understand his problems and end up judging him. It further alienates Vinu from others and pushes him into the depth of despair.

Vinu’s mother Asha is also fighting her own feeling of alienation. She feels betrayed by her family, who she feels do not fully appreciated the scale of the sacrifices she has made for them. She is also diagnosed with clinical depression, causing her to cry all night at times. Vinu has got used to his mother’s seemingly endless crying and he makes no big deal of it. When he finds out that all the crying he had been hearing at night was not just his mother, he is already in the middle of a ghost carnival.

Bhoothakaalam is allegorical. The house is the manifestation of a mind that is haunted by past regrets and negative emotions that we are unwilling to let go of. Rahul Sadasivan wants to highlight how the little things that we fail to share gradually pile up and take the shape of a monster that eats us up from within. Vinu and Asha need to open their hearts if they desire a fighting chance against the ghosts. Are they ready to do so or would rather let the house consume them?

Shane Nigam is impressive as the man staring into the abyss while Revathy channels the pain of a tormented soul. Together, they draws us by the collar and retain the hold till the very end. The last 15 or 20 minutes of the film are a real doozy as they set the heart racing.