Balloon - Comedy keeps it afloat

Here comes another heavily inspired  horror comedy with an impressive cast comprising of Jai, Anjali and Yogi Babu in the mix . Will it sign off on a high note at the year's end with the audiences or not remains to be seen. Jai is an aspiring film director whose action script is rejected and instead has the task of  coming up with a horror script which he is skeptical about.   At home his brother (Subbu Panchu) ridicules him while his wife Jacqueline ( Anjali) is supportive. A post on Facebook about a haunted house in Ooty where many have been murdered interests him and he decides to go there for inspiration along with his wife, nephew and two colleagues Panda (Yogi Babu) and Arokkiam (Karthick Yogi).  At the guest house little Pappu (Jai's nephew) unwittingly unleashes a spirit from a well which wreaks havoc on their lives.  What does the spirit want and how is Jai and his family connected to it is what the rest of the screenplay deals with.

Jai brings his usual charm and boy next door casualness to Kutty making the role easily likeable.  He also looks both pitiful and menacing in the Pennyworth inspired makeup and shines in the action sequences too in the climax. Nothing new in the way he has portrayed the other role Charlie during the flashback.  Anjali as the supportive wife does a very neat job never for once overdoing, a mark of the seasoned actress she is.   Yogi Babu is the star of the show cracking one joke after another and countering all and sundry throughout the film.  Watch out for the scene in which he sleeps with the "pei" doll.  The boy who plays Pappu is a scream working up Yogi Babu in every frame they are together and has also carried off being possessed neatly.  Janani Iyer is wasted in an inconsequential role and 'Aramm' Rams and Naganeedu are also in the cast.

The entire  first half is quite engaging  with the a liberal dose of comedy and thrills mixed well into the screenplay.  The sequence that leads to the interval is very thrilling and also has a shock value.  A filmmaker's grouse with the Caste based political leaders who try to hinder a film's release has been devoted much time in 'Balloon' and the director even enjoys unleashing a couple of ghosts on them in the end.

What deflates 'Balloon' to a large extent is the second half petering away into mediocrity and a very weak flashback.  While the thrill is there in anticipation of what the spirit could be once the girl appears and she, the boy and Anjali are zombiefied a sense of dejavu sets in.  The film tries to be a comedy, a horror, a reincarnation and a revenge story all at the same time and succeeds only in parts.  The connection the writer-director tries to make between the present and the past characters of Jai  is so insipid that it creates unintentional comedy.

When Yuvan Shankar Raja's name appears on the credits the theater erupts and he does not disappoint his fans in the background score but the songs are definitely not in league with his other hits.  R. Saravanan's camera is a big plus playing with lighting and angles to drum up an uneasy air which works well mostly in the first half.  Ruben's editing is crisp in the first half while the second half feels like it's too long. While director Sinish can be appreciated for naming the films that inspired him at the start he has only done justice to them in the first half and in the second he has brought in a beaten to death revenge track that even the ghosts will be bored of.half and in the second he has brought in a beaten to death revenge track that even the ghosts will be bored of even if its in the film inside the film.

Verdict : Go for it for the genuinely laughable comedy of Yogi Babu and a few thrilling moments.

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