Movie review 'Ranatantra': Same old scary plot

Movie: Ranatantra
Cast: Vijay Raghavendra, Hariprriya
Director: Aadhiram
Rating: 2.5

The ghostly affairs continue with Ranatantra. Sandalwood gets yet another horror formula, and this time it is the four-year-old project that finally sees the light of day. With the scenario rife with horror flicks releasing one-after-another, sadly, they have succeeded in scaring the audience away!

With similarities to Hollywood’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, Ranatantra has all the cliches required for a scary movie — a lonely guest house in the middle of an island, a scary looking watchman, newlyweds on their honeymoon and off course the ghost. A decent enough movie, unfortunately Ranatantra fails to scare the audience even though the lead actors have given a good rendition and a couple of melodious songs.

With the main focus on such movies laying emphasis on how the lead actors are introduced, and how the hero or heroine encounter each other for that ‘love at first sight,’ the director interprets it with a unique though cliched chase —  a hero chasing a dog who is running towards his own partner!

After all the regular struggles to impress the girl, the hero faces the age-old challenge — to convince the girl’s father who is dead against the betrothal. The couple then elope, and the usual predictable scenes follow — a honeymoon at a friend’s who owns a guesthouse in the middle of a remote island. Meanwhile, a couple of girls are being mysteriously murdered. Hariprriya is at her natural best and Vijay adds value to the script. There are a group of female techies who were accidentally responsible for the death of a poor LIC agent, who is now back as a ghost haunting and hunting them down. Will the heroine survive? It’s a decent watch, the scary experience notwithstanding!