Mo: Old school harm

‘Mo’ resuscitates the horror-comedy genre with some freshly infused oxygen.

Just when you thought you’re done with Kollywood’s horror-comedy obsession comes Mo — a film that resuscitates the genre with some freshly infused oxygen.

In a sense, Mo sets an example of how a small film (small on budget though big on ambition) can go about its business of storytelling with light-footedness when it rids itself of unnecessary love tracks, superfluous songs and other breaks in narration.

It tells the story of how a bunch of fraudsters set up scares in buildings to influence their real estate value. They come in the garb of exorcists, but they’re actually extortionists. That is, until they’re given a chance to set up spooks in an old abandoned school building. From here on, the setting is scary for two reasons… one because the place is haunted and two because of the horrors one associates with going back to school.

Mo shows us that all you need at times is a bunch of interestingly-written characters and their camaraderie to hold a two-hour film.

Lesser filmmakers can even take a lesson or two from Mo on how to milk tense scenes for the comic goldmine they are.

Just when I thought I was out (of Tamil horror films)… they pull me back in.

Genre: Horror-comedy

Director: Bhuvan R. Nullan

Cast: Aishwarya Rajesh, Suresh Ravi, Ramesh Thilak

Storyline: Fraudsters set up scares at buildings to alter their real estate value.

Bottomline: A fun trip back to school.