Eesha, released in theatres by Bunny Vaas and Vamsi Nandipati, was released in theatres today. In this section, we are going to review the latest BO release.
Plot:
Kalyan (Trigun), Vinay (Akhil Raj), Nayana (Hebah Patel), and Aparna (Siri Hanumanthu) are close friends from childhood. They strongly believe that ghosts and spirits do not exist at all. They make it their mission to expose fake godmen and fraudulent babas who, in the name of superstitions, exploit people and are responsible for the deaths of innocent individuals. They come to know about a highly-educated baba-like figure named Aadi Dev (Babloo Prithveeraj) is into shooing away spirits. Believing that he is a fraudster, the four friends set out to expose him. They are destined to stay for three days in an abandoned bungalow. What they are in for is on the expected lines.
Post-Mortem:
See, we are aware nobody can be reasonably expected to make a film to profess that ghosts are a myth. They most probably exist and some of them harass us by using film writers/directors as their mediums. That's not the point here. What makes this ritual depressing is that the harassment is conventional and lifeless, repetitive and downright silly.
The film Eesha sets out to prove two points. The first one has been stated in the previous para. The second one can't be revealed in the review because that would be a spoiler. Suffice it to say that writer-director Srinivas Manne doesn't add anything to our understanding of life and the hereafter through his plot. Just as your average meditation-loving uncle uses terms like 'dharma' and 'aatma' superficially, this film deploys its themes (such as the inescapability of fate) in a shallow manner through a character born to parents belonging to two different nationalities.
The ghost follows a ritual. It targets a pregnant woman first before proceeding to a non-pregnant woman, followed by two unsuspecting males. The characters don't believe they are in danger because, if they did, the film would be wrapped up in no time. The four friends take decisions at a break-neck speed to begin with (their decision to become myth-busters is life-changing but is taken in 30 seconds flat), but everything they do later beggars belief. Yes, some of this behaviour can be explained by the ultimate twist, but given the drastic nature of the twist, the screenplay preceding the reveal should have been imaginative.
The final twist doesn't obviate fundamental questions. Why do the four friends want to win against someone they believe is a fraud and is not going to accept his defeat anyways? It's not like their mission is being televised or videographed and they are going to make a statement to the world through their victory. They wonder that a renowned man of knowledge who pursued a strange path after the untimely death of his wife is playing mind games with them. Why do they even believe so? There is possibly an explanation in the nature of the twist, but it doesn't come through unambiguously.
RR Dhurvan's background score is fundamentally old-fashioned. It's unnecessarily over-the-top in many scenes. If the intent was to scare the audience, sorry but the effect is quite the opposite.
Closing Remarks:
Despite a premise involving myth-busting and skeptical protagonists, Eesha falls into the trap of conventional horror tropes and a repetitive screenplay.
