Aval (2017 film)
| Aval | |
|---|---|
 Poster of Hindi version | |
| Directed by | Milind Rau |
| Written by | Milind Rau Siddharth (dialogues) |
| Produced by | Siddharth |
| Starring | Siddharth Andrea Jeremiah |
| Cinematography | Shreyaas Krishna |
| Edited by | Lawrence Kishore |
| Music by | Girishh G. |
Production companies | Viacom 18 Motion Pictures Etaki Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Viacom 18 Motion Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 137 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Languages | Tamil Hindi |
Aval (transl. Her) in Tamil and The House Next Door in Hindi, is a 2017 Indian horror film co-written and directed by Milind Rau. Shot simultaneously in the Tamil and Hindi, it stars Siddharth and Andrea Jeremiah, with Siddharth also its co-producer and co-writer. It was released on 3 November 2017 to mostly positive reviews in all languages and became a success.[1] It was dubbed in Telugu as Gruham and released on November 17.[2][3]
Plot
The movie starts with a series of incidents of a happy life of mom and a daughter back in 1934. At present in 2016 Dr. Krishnakanth Acharya / Krish (Siddharth), a successful neurosurgeon, and his wife Lakshmi (Andrea Jeremiah) live peacefully in their beautiful house under the mountains in Rosina Valley. Their perfect life together is now disturbed after a family moves into the house next door where the mother and the daughter lived in 1934.
Jennifer D'Costa / Jenny (Anisha Angelina Victor) is a troubled teenager and neighbour of Krish and Lakshmi. Losing her mother at the young age, she has turned out to be a rebel. While she doesn't despise her caring stepmother, she never misses a chance to throw tantrums at her either. But, she loves her halfsister Sarah. One day soon after relocating to the new house Jenny comes to meet Laxmi with Sarah and make friends with her. She is instantly attracted to Krish's charm and makes an attempt to come closer to him. That night while exploring the house Krish saw Jenny jumping into the well and saves her.
Jennifer's rebellious nature makes her do things like smoking for example. During one such time when she sneaks out of the house for a smoke, she picks up some belongings of a dead person. Jenny starts to act weird soon her family moves in the house. So, Jenny's grandfather contact a nomad but Paul refuses to take any help from him. So, Jenny's father Paul D'Costa (Atul Kulkarni) with Krish's recommendation contacts Dr Prasad (Suresh). After Jenny tells her that there is someone who is telling her to leave the house and a few strange incidents happened to her the doctor concludes she has developed Paranoia with visual and auditory hallucinations. They have also arranged a hypnotherapy session where Jenny tells her it is Li-Jing and not her who has gone to the hills. And a series of paranormal incidents abound that affects the lives of the people around her. Jennifer's new house is haunted by three ancient Chinese spirits, and one of them is a man and he is bloodthirsty while the other two spirits are the mom and the daughter who helps the family to get out of the house without trouble. The mother daughter duo continues to warn the people to leave the house but they don't leave. Paul calls the Pastor to perform exorcism on Jenny but the session leaves Pastor in Coma with Krish and Paul heavily injured. Later on, when it is believed to be everything is fine, Laxmi becomes pregnant and the maid in Paul's house disappeared. Paul agrees to call the Nomad witnessing this and he revealed there is a spirit of mother and daughter who are asking them to leave. He also discovered the bodies where they were buried. Krish accompanies Dr Prasad when he decides to visit a lady from the neighbor village to know what has happened to Paul's house 80 years ago. The lady revealed to them how the man of house Lu Wei has killed her own daughter to get a baby boy. The major twist comes up in the end of the story where DR Prasad is killed as he understood the truth that not only Jenny is possessed by the woman's spirit but Lu-Wei has possessed Krish to fulfil his unsuccessful work 80 years back. Aval is not just a conventional humans vs devil narration. It has an angle of good spirits vs bad spirits and how the living suffer as they are jammed between this supernatural tug-of-war.
Cast
- Siddharth as Dr. Krishnakanth "Krish"
- Andrea Jeremiah as Lakshmi Krishnakanth
- Anisha Angelina Victor as Jennifer "Jenny" D'Cousta
- Atul Kulkarni as Paul D'Cousta, Jenny’s father
- Suresh as Dr. Prasad
- Avinash Raghudevan as Psychic
- Prakash Belawadi as Pastor Joshua
- Bhawana Aneja as Lizzy D'Cousta, Jenny’s stepmother
- Deeraj Vaidy as Krish's Friend
- Khushi Hajare as Sarah D'Cousta, Jenny’s half sister
- Yusuf Hussein as Colonel D'Cousta, Jenny’s grandfather
Production
The film was planned by Siddharth in June 2016, who revealed that he would work on a horror film alongside actress Andrea Jeremiah to be directed by Milind Rau, who had earlier made the unreleased Kadhal 2 Kalyanam. The title of the film was said to be The House Next Door, and the film was subsequently shot simultaneously in three languages namely Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil.[4] However, the Telugu version was dropped in favor of a dubbed release.[5] The principal photography of the film commenced in August 2016.
In October 2016, Andrea Jeremiah revealed that the shoot of the film was over.[6]
Music
| Aval (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Singer(s) | Length |
| 1. | "Kaarigai Kanne" | Muthamil | Vijay Prakash, Shakthisree Gopalan | 5:20 |
| 2. | "Yaarada" | Girishh, Muthamil | Andrea Jeremiah, Mark Thomas | 4:25 |
| 3. | "Xiao Xiao Ma" | Chen-Yu Maglin | Chen-Yu Maglin, Poorna M | 2:25 |
| 4. | "Aval Theme" | Instrumental | 1:54 | |
- Hindi tracklist[7]
- "O Mere Sanam" - Benny Dayal
- "Ye Waqt Maut Ka Hai" - Suraj Jagan, Shilpa Natarajan
- Telugu tracklist[8]
- "Kaatukka Kanne" - Sathyaprakash, Chinmayi
- "Yevadura" - Shilpa Natrajan, Mark Thomas
- "Xiao Xiao Ma" - Chen-Yu Maglin, Poorna M
Reception
Thinkal Menon of Times of india gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and wrote that "To say the least, Aval joins the list of well-made horror flicks made in Kollywood.".[9] Haricharan Pudipeddi critic of Hindustan Times wrote that "Siddharth’s film is treated with the same level of seriousness, and there’s never a dip in the tone" and gave 3.5 stars out of 5.[10] Manoj Kumar R of The Indian Express rated 4 out of 5 and noted that "will test your immunity to horror films".[11]
India Today rated 3.5 out of 5.[12]
See also
References
- ^ "Aval movie review: The Siddharth and Andrea Jeremiah starrer will test your immunity to horror films". 3 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
- ^ "Mani Ratnam isn't a fan of horror films: Milind Rau- The New Indian Express".
- ^ "Gruham movie review and rating by critics and audience: Live updates". International Business Times. 15 November 2017.
- ^ "Andrea and Sid to team up for a trilingual film". The Times of India. 12 June 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
- ^ "Aval director Milind Rau: 'Siddharth and I did not want to dilute horror with comedy'". 11 October 2017.
- ^ "Andrea Jeremiah Finishes The House Next Door Shoot; Talks about Taramani, and its Portrayal of Relationships". 21 October 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
- ^ "The House Next Door - All Songs - Download or Listen Free - JioSaavn". 16 October 2017.
- ^ "Gruham - All Songs - Download or Listen Free - JioSaavn". 16 October 2017.
- ^ "Aval Movie Review". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
- ^ "Aval movie review: Siddharth film has its flaws, but it's devilishly frightening". Hindustan Times. 3 November 2017. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
- ^ "Aval movie review: The Siddharth and Andrea Jeremiah starrer will test your immunity to horror films". The Indian Express. 3 November 2017. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
- ^ "Aval movie review: This Siddharth-starrer is the horror film we've been waiting for". India Today. Retrieved 23 May 2023.