Tulasidalam Review

One doesn't need a great budget to think sensibly.  There is a character by name Subbu who, although living in Las Vegas, has his superstitions rooted in India.  The thinking of the director (RP Patnaik) is very much like this character.  Out of context, in a scene, the ghost reader Dr. Tilak (played by RP himself) talks Newton, gravitation, science.  When it's climax time, the good doctor not only comes up with amulets to stave off evil, but also does it clumsily: one amulet less in an emergency!

Somewhere in India, a girl is possessed by the spirit of her friend.  The spirit is possessive about her friend and wants to take away with her.  Somewhere in Las Vegas, Nisha (Vandana Gupta) is possessive about her boyfriend Sattwik (Nischal), a tourist guide.  Sattwik is fond of children, but Nisha isn't.

Sattwik rules out the existence of evil spirits.  Subbu, a superstitious companion of Sattwik, challenges  him to sleep in a graveyard all the night alone if he is not scared of evil.  Sattwik starts experiencing a looming spirit whenever he is alone after sleeping in graveyard for a night.  With no clue about what's happening to him, he unconsciously withdraws himself from the world.  He happens to meet Shanti in a busy Las Vegas street on the Halloween day.

Least does he know that there is more to it than meets the eye.  The second half unravels the mystery behind who is Shanti, how Dr. Tilak tries to resolve the mystery, and more.

Tulasidalam doesn't give an edge-of-seat rush even in the climax.  The first episode of the film is a loose end.  RP Patnaik described the romantic-horror as a constructive horror.  Probably, he meant to say that the spirit is a benign one and not destructive.  However, such a benign spirit has been seen in the past.

Projecting the horror film as having been set in the bright Las Vegas as against a dark backdrop, RP promised some novelty.  However, one hardly feels the boisterousness and brightness of Vegas anywhere.  The cinematography should have been A-rated for the director to convey his scheme.  Some of the long shots are way too sub-par.

The romantic track involving the lead pair falls short of complementing the other track.  For a film whose genre is romantic-horror-thriller, such a complementarity was a sine qua non.  In fact, the bonding between Nisha and Sattwik goes missing as the danger looms large toward the climax.  After Dr. Tilak tells Sattwik that Nisha is emitting ominous vibrations, the film doesn't become intense at all.  How many times do the characters sit around and wonder about 'dayyalu'?  As if this is not sickening, after a supposedly serious conversation, one character wishes another a happy New Year in advance!  Cut to the next scene, we see a New Year song that is at the level of a private album made 20 years ago.

Nischal looks less and less worried even as the climax is nearing.  Apart from RP's amulet-bestowing doctor's role, what is the contribution of the hero to the staving off of the crisis?  The VFX is an assault, to say the least.

Two of the songs, Inthintha and Yemainado, sound good, although they are like a Maestro and a Manasantha Nuvve song, respectively.

As for the performances, Nischal has no good screen presence and his voice is too sophisticated.  Vandana Gupta gets to do some skin show and sound romantic and nothing more.  Brahmanandam's cameo is jaded and induces a sense of deja vu.  It's  a dumbed down version of many such type of roles we have seen before.  Duvvasi Mohan and the one who played Subbu don't make an impact.  RP should have known this much that a character who comes repeatedly and has to do comedy with Brahmi should have been a known face.

Sans technical values, this film has no takeaway.  The cinematography is sub-par, VFX is kid-stuff, to say the least.

Verdict: With no exciting writing, weak characterizations, and downright pathetic visuals, Tulasidalam falls flat.