An adaptation of Maya, a 2015 Tamil horror film, Aake, with the tagline‘Death is never the end, it is just the beginning’ is certainly better than the normal staple of Kannada films in the genre.
Despite employing horror clichés such as white eyes, sudden loud music, gloomy graveyards, creepy dolls and mental asylums, K.M. Chaitanya (of Aa Dinagalu fame) has viewers guessing and on the edge of their seats in the first half. Slow but intense narration is the hallmark of Aake .
The film revolves around Shiva (Chiranjeevi Sarja), a young artist in London, commissioned to illustrate a book on a horror series by a psychologist. He learns about a forest where a mental asylum was located. Patients were used as guinea pigs in science experiments at the asylum. Running parallel is the story of Bengaluru-based Sharmila (Sharmila Mandre), a single mother and an aspiring actress, who is estranged from her husband. A series of supernatural events bring Sharmila and Shiva together.
The film heads downhill once the two stories are linked. The pace gets slower and the plot predictable.
Chiranjeevi Sarja and Sharmila live up to expectation while Prakash Belawadi, Amaan, Achyut Kumar and Sneha Acharya really impress with their performances.
The credit of offering world-class production must go to Ian Howes, who is associated with the Harry Potter series, production designer Paul Burns, and Malhar Bhatt Joshi, who succeed in giving the film a truly eerie touch. Gurukiran’s background score sets the right mood and tempo to the dark, psychological tale.
