Tripura Review

You can make a horror-comedy, you can make a bad horror-comedy, but would it be sensible to have a horror film in which the comedy dayyam has more screen time than her serious revenge-seeking avatar?  Of course, 'Prema Katha Chitram' presented such a supposedly facetious idea; but the film was more about a spirit with a mission, a spirit forced to teach a lesson to male characters, who ignorantly dared to invite her wrath by outraging Nandita's modesty.  In 'Tripura', the spirit bides her time but, meanwhile, indulges in some 'dishum dishum' with those three comedians, threatening them with a kick on that unmentionable part.  She disappears and comes back only in the climax, for the briefest cameo possible.

The film begins with the murder of Pooja Ramachandran, setting the tone for a drama.  Naveen Chandra plays a clinical psychiatrist in Hyderabad.  Swathi is a village belle with a knack for having a premonition of the things to come.  Her popularity for seeing the future in her dreams is her father's headache, who promptly sees her to Rao Ramesh, a psychiatrist and Naveen's chief.  Love blossoms between Naveen and Swathi and they soon tie the knot.

Naveen's friend is a cop, who has been investigating Pooja's murder.  Swathi's problems begin when she sees the nightmare of stabbing Naveen with a knife in her dream.

Minus Swathi's congenital capacity to see the future in her dreams, the film presents no other idea to make the audience wait for the climax.  Even this element is dumped halfway through the film, veering instead towards the buffoonery of Sapthagiri, JP and Shakalaka Shankar.

The film is a pack of oldish ideas and scenes.  Sample these:  Swathi's prediction of flat tyre, her langa-oni avatar and the song amidst rural environs, the primitive duet involving Yuvasamrat Naveen and Andala Tara Swathi, the mute maid, that murder most fossilized..

There is an overdose of Sapthagiri for sure, even discounting for the fact that he is the brightest element!  He is all over, coining alliterations and rhyming words, even a double meaning line or two.  But the scenes themselves are so vacuous that after the spirit beats up JP, Shankar and Sapthagiri, one after one, it is for Sapthagiri's witty word or two on the 'damage done' that we wait for.

The only words that the psychiatrist hubby uses are 'trance' and 'hallucination'!

What was the point in having that mute maid?  Dhanraj's cameo is, as the film is, at the level of 'Jabardasth' comedy.

It is difficult to see Swathi in a role sans her bubbly self.  She is off-colour and totally a misfit to play the role of a saree-clad housewife.  Naveen Chandra gets to do a sketchy act, like all the serious characters, including Rao Ramesh.

Technical aspects given an impression that 'Tripura' has been made on a shoestring budget.  Two songs are good melody-wise, not visually.

Verdict: Tripura is a half-baked horror-comedy banking more on Sapthagiri, JP, Dhanraj and Shakalaka Shankar than on the substantive characters.

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