Sowkarpettai: Unintentionally horrifying

Genre: Horror

Director: Vadivudaiyan

Cast: Srikanth, Raai Laxmi, Suman

Storyline: Two casually-dressed ghosts take revenge against an evil money lender

Remember those horror films that market themselves by announcing a huge reward if you watch it alone in a theatre? Sowkarpettai , too, could have done something similar. ‘Rs. 10,000 for anybody who can sit thorough this film. Even if in a full theatre’, the notice could have read. It’s yet another horror-sleaze-comedy, Kollywood’s latest fad, following the Aranmanai and Muni series. In other words, it’s the kind of film where even ghosts (Raai Laxmi mostly) aren’t spared from being objectified.

Though named

Sowkarpettai , it isn’t exactly a film you should watch with your North Indian friends. Why? The film is about how two ghosts Maya (Raai Laxmi) and Vetri (Srikanth) avenge being murdered by a Marwari moneylender named Godhra Seth (like the riot?) and his three ‘Rajasthan

ki sher ’ sons. In a scene, Godhra Seth’s son tells Srikanth, ‘

Unga appa ungale vetrinnu solli koopitaar, engappa engale vattinnu solli koopitaar . [Your father raised you by calling you vetri (victory). Our father raised us by calling us vatti (interest).] There’s no place for subtlety in

Sowkarpettai .

It’s also interesting how only the younger couple, after getting murdered, become ghosts. Vetri’s parents (played by Thalaivasal Vijay and Rekha), are murdered by the same group just as brutally, but somehow don’t get a chance to become ghosts and take revenge. What then, is the ‘eligibility’ to become a ghost in films like these? Do you need to be of a certain age group, preferably with fans? Or does it require a certain amount of glamour?

Not that you’re looking for any logic in a film where there’s a wizard who wants to make a baby with a ghost. The only thing horrifying about this adult-rated film is how everyone else in the theatre had disappeared, leaving me alone, scared.