In need of ‘cut’ tabomman
STORY:
Sathya (Sibiraj) works as SI in the police department. He is an empty vessle of cop, but he is sent to a village called Ayanpuram on an assignment, after people there complain that they experience paranormal activities.
In the village, sticking to the traditions of Tamil cinema, he falls for a beautiful girl Viji (Bindu Madhavi), daughter of the local chieftain. But he has a rival in the form of her ‘morapayyan’ Veera (Karunakaran).
Following this, Viji’s father (Shanmugasundaram) comes up with a competition. That he would give his daughter to the one who manages to stay alive in the haunted bungalow in the village for seven days.
Both Sathya and Veera step in to the bungalow and find out the truth behind the ghosts and what are the spirits up to. And there is a flashback that takes you back to the pre-indpendence era, involving local British head (Zachary) and a revolutionary (Sathyaraj).
ANALYSIS:
Dharanidharan made a promising debut with ‘Burma’ a couple of years ago, while Sibiraj is on his path towards comeback after ‘Naaigal Jaakirathai’. But their ‘Jackson Durai’ is a neither here nor there kind of stuff, which fails to impress us.
We don’t deny that the movie follows the present day success formula, as it is a horror comedy. But few chilling scenes and one-liners alone are not enough to sustain the interest of the audience.
The director has mixed fantasy, horror and spoof, but he has missed it out on screenplay. Sibiraj does his best, while Karunakaran and Yogi Babu try to evoke laughter. Sathyaraj is not much entertaining. And Bindu Madhavi is beautiful.
With few impressive scenes, Jackson Durai is watchable for its star cast and technical areas (Yuvaraj’s cinematography and Vivek Harshan’s editing). Certain amount of sharp editing in the writing could have done wonders.
Verdict: Average
Director: Dharani Dharan
Music: Siddharth Vipin
Cast: Sathyaraj, Sibiraj, Bindu Madhavi, Karunakaran, Rajendran, Yogi Babu, Zachary
Pro: Nikil Murugan
