For those who missed the first Avunu, a swift recap. A ghost named Captain Raju who inhabits a slick and a swanky apartment, harasses and attempts to rape the newly wed bride Mohini (Poorna)as the couple move in. After umpteen attempts it gets into the body of her husband Harsha (Harshavardhan Rane) and assaults her.
Avunu 2 begins with the badly bruised and once possessed Harsha being rushed into an operation theatre and his parents, who rush back on hearing the news, die in a car accident. After performing their funeral rites at Kashi, a totally recovered Harsha and Mohini are seen getting into a modern fully automated apartment. At Kashi, an Aghora gives Mohini a pendant that would keep her safe and the ghost at bay for a year if worn on her body. The ghost follows the couple and attempts to rape her while she is asleep. The funda is whenever the ghost sees the pendant/charm hanging around her neck, it stays at a distance. The rest of the story is about how the invisible spirit makes umpteen attempts to shove away the pendant and violate Mohini.
The success of Avunu must have prompted the director to make the sequel. Here too there are very few characters and the location is limited to a sleek looking home operated by remote and activated by sensors.
Most part of the film is repetitive, the heroine is either working in the kitchen or dropping her clothes in the bathroom for a shower and the spirit following her. The sequence leading to this act is a yawn. A few minutes after the Aghora gives Mohini the charm, the paranormal fun and fear disappears. Any charm or an object — if it is powerful — should keep the evil spirit away; but here the spirit doesn't touch Mohini only as long as it is on her but it has no problem in pushing the pendant down the drain, underneath a cupboard or allowing a vacuum cleaner to suck it in.
While the invisible spirit is having its voyeuristic pleasure, the director does an unthinkable, he introduces a team of super intelligent people who experiment on a possessed dead man in a glass container and capture the images of the spirit moving out of the body and taking a walk around it. Well, if people can believe in ghosts they can believe in a scanning machine capturing its image, he must have thought!
Most scenes have been hurriedly chopped and the indulgence on the romantic scenes gets a wee bit irritating. While the audience is dying of claustrophobia shuttling between the bedroom, bathroom and the kitchen with the spirit, another unnecessary flashback of the neighbour is introduced. Result you already know that the neighbour's wife is another good helpful spirit.
The film ends up being another documentary endorsing home appliances, plush interiors and sensor driven mosquito repellents. Avunu 2 in a nutshell is about Captain Raj’s obsession and perversion in a brand new place. Stellar performances and a good technical team apart, the film has little to boast.
Cast: Poorna, Harsha Vardhan Rane
Direction: Ravi Babu
Music: Shekar Chandra
Genre: Thriller
Plot: Ghost returns to haunt
Bottomline: Only frills, no story or soul
