Bayama Irukku (Eng: It’s Scary!) is a 2017 Indian Tamil horror comedy film written and directed by Jawahar. The film features Santhosh Prathap and Reshmi Menon in the leading roles, with an ensemble cast of Rajendran, Jagan, Bharani and Lollu Sabha Jeeva amongst others in supporting roles. The film began production and was completed by late 2015, but delays meant that it had a theatrical release on 22 September 2017.
Bayama Irukku seems to have arrived at least a couple of years late. The horror comedy wave is now at its ebb and the film, which ticks all the cliches in the genre doesn’t offer anything new to change things. This is yet another movie that has been assembled together with a bunch of comedians and a lead pair who are included only to provide some romantic moments. The film, in fact, calls itself a love story rather than a ghost story.
It opens with Jai (Santhosh) rescuing Ajith (Rajendran), Shiva (Jeeva), Mani (Jagan) and Raj (Bharani) from the Sri Lankan military and bringing them safely to India. We are told that Jai was in the island nation searching for his in-laws and had left his pregnant wife, Lekha (Reshmi) to look for them. He takes them to his house, that exists in the middle of a water body. They are welcomed by the Lekha, who has now delivered a male child. However, eerie happenings in the place convince the friends that Lekha is long dead, and it is her ghost that they are interacting with. They try to warn Jai and save him, but will it be too late for that?
For a horror comedy, Bayama Irukku is short on both scares and laughs. The predictable script hardly displays any inventiveness and is content to assume that anything that Rajendran does will make audiences laugh.
Worse, it even lifts a segment involving the actor from Darling and tries to be funny. Just like Rajendran’s flashy exorcist in the film, here, we have Kovai Sarala as Devil Devika, who is brought in to tame the ghost. And the incidents that happen are almost similar to what happens in that film. Even a great possibility, involving the friends getting trapped in a scare house at a fair, isn’t exploited enough. Most of the time, we smile because we have nothing much to do.
As for the romance, it isn’t really written convincingly, and the actors are quite bland to suggest that what they share is eternal love. The only thing that comes close to being romantic is the beautifully done title credits!
But where the film really infuriates us in how it tries to exploit the genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils to make us think that what we are seeing is more meaningful.
Directed by Jawahar
Produced by Jawahar
Starring Santhosh Prathap, Reshmi Menon
Music by C. Sathya
Cinematography Mahendran
Edited by Kamalakannan
Production Vasantham Productions
Release date 22 September 2017
Country India
Language Tamil
