‘Petromax’ movie review: A silly, outdated horror comedy

Tamannaah cannot save this unfunny film, which gives her absolutely no scope to perform

‘Petromax’: Tamannaah is wasted in this outdated film

Like most ghost tales in Tamil cinema, Petromax too kickstarts proceedings at an old, decrepit house. The owner, based in Malaysia, wants to sell it off, but there’s an issue: it’s a haunted house.

Or so, everyone in the vicinity is made to believe. It’s up to Senthil (Munishkanth), who works in a bar, to settle this issue by proving to the owner (Saravanan, played by Prem) that there is no ghost. To help in the process, he assembles a group — consisting of ‘Kaali’ Venkat, Sathyan and TSK — to stay in the house. Do they escape unscathed?

A Tamil remake of Anando Brahma, Petromax wants to be an entertaining horror-comedy but ends up being an outdated mess of a film. Instead of focusing on its core plot points or characters, it prefers to delve into flashbacks — most of them weak — and tells the backstories of characters who have no link with the core line.

Petromax

• Cast: Tamannaah, Prem, Munishkanth, Kaali Venkat
• Storyline: A haunted bungalow needs to be sold, and for that to happen, the ghosts need to be chased out

Sample this: A guy (‘Kaali’ Venkat) has to have his drink at 9pm sharp, and that’s supposed to be a funny thing. There’s more...there’s romance and dance sequences with ‘supposed’ ghosts that brings almost no laughter. The sequences involving actor TSK (who plays a cinema-obsessed guy) are mildly funny, especially the one in which he mimics Vikram in Anniyan , but that is not going to save a two-hour plus unfunny offering.

So, what’s Tamannaah doing in between all this? She has little to do, save for providing startled expressions whenever things don’t go her way. As Meera, there is little scope in terms of performance and it’s puzzling that she chose such a script, especially at a time when her stakes at the box office is high. She tries taking an emotional route towards the end, but it falls flat. The only saving graces are cinematographer Dani Raymod’s rich frames and Ghibran’s background score.

Director Rohin Venkatesan showed some promise with his first film Adhe Kangal , but struggles to do justice to an outdated concept and genre with his latest outing.