Movie Review : The Akaali

 Sowmya Devarma ( Swayam Siddha) is the investigating officer of Police Interanal affairs division. She interviews officer Hamzah Rahman about a sinister case that dates back to 2016, involving a sinister cult and killings which  had links between a series of bizarre rituals in the  Janice murders.





Hamzah reveals how a clue relating to  Janice led to a series of discoveries due to which,  an officer, Selvam ( Arjai) became deranged. A reporter Charles has solid clues of  the murders by the cult, discovered Hamzah. 

Hamzah's journey leads him to a surprise discovery leading to satan worship and occult practices. What role does  a priest ( Nasser) play in all of this? Why are certain people targetted? Is this a case of drugs, human traficking or the occult? 

The film traverses a vast landscape of premises from occult practices and drugs to mind control,  and deranged people with greed for power.

The actors do their best and each of them delivers solid performances.

The art and costumes department seems to have done a good job, as has the music director with his chilling bgm.

The story forever,  with its non -linear approach, requires extreme patience and concentration to follow.  

Most of the film seems shot in dark spaces, a lot of scenes involving broken buildings, debris and dust make for tedious viewing after a while.

 Some action scenes are rivetting, as in those with Arjai in his house, but many are repetitive and  too long  adding to the length of the 145 minutes film.

The premise is not clearly conveyed and a hint of a sequel is left in the end which gives a sudden and  incomplete feel to the film.  A crisper edit would have helped. The makers in the attempt to make things racy and mysterious, and toss in added visuals for effect, seemed to have missed out on conveying a crisp and coherent story. 


Cast 

Nasser - Donald/ Sebastian Halloway

Jai kumar - Hamzah Rahman

Thalaivasal Vijay - Vijay

Swayam sidha - S Sowmya

Vinoth Kishan - Vincent

Vinodhini - Dakshyani

Arjai - Selvam 

Sekar - David

Yamini - Yasmine 

Dharani - Anitha

Bharath - Gautham 

Elavarasan - Eesa

Vignesh Ravichandran  -Vicky

Sabir Ali - Sabir Ali

Masiha sabeer - Janice 





Crew 

Director - Mohammed Asif Hameed

Producer - P Ukeshwaran

Dop - Giri Murphy 

Art Director - Thota Tharani

Costume Designer - Poornima

Editor - Iniyavan Pandian 

Stunts - Dinesh Kasi

Iniyavan (Fix it in Post) - Vfx

Dubbing Engineer - Ram Kathirvelu

Dubbing Studio - Nam studios



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