Mohamed Asif Hameed’s film, The Akaali immerses audiences in an eerie world of superstition. When a man (Arjai’s Selvam) comes across a decrepit building adorned with grotesque statues and shrouded in darkness while being chased by masked killers, his eyes wide with terror say it all. Already the background music is so loud it feels like it’s attacking our eardrums as he gazes at the statue, dizzy with fear like he’s never seen one before. In fairness to the creators this is what the plot requires of this character but you don’t feel it because it comes too early in the movie and there isn’t much build up to this moment. Also, there’s someone who comes way too late with a chunk of info dump and animation to drum up his arrival.
Everything in The Akaali happens on such exaggerated levels that oftentimes it feels like poking to elicit a reaction. Even just saying the titular character’s name to a group of policemen gets quite a strong response. But then again: Who or what even is the Akaali? And why should we care about them? From simply looking at its story, the Akaali is head of a cult that sacrifices young women through gruesome rituals, however, throughout its little over two hours runtime hardly anything is confirmed about this figure as if on purpose only reaching some sort-of climax towards finishing.
The film drips with excess but has such love put into it that you wish for sleekness enough to make itself an enjoyable rollercoaster ride. There are significant details paid attention to when making The Akaali, for example: they did very well for themselves creating believable locations using practical effects; also keeping up creepy dark atmospheres throughout although loud background music failed making things unsettling as intended sometimes parts reminded me more than anything else ever could have Adam Joan (2017) or even Tumbbad (2018), but unfortunately these guys don’t seem caring much about telling stories.
All the expository passages make for a very heavy-handed approach to storytelling that is such a downer. Swayam Sidha’s character, as an example, interrogates the lead investigator Jai Kumar played by Hamzah Rahman who looks into main events within the plot as a law enforcement officer herself. She does this with mixture of sarcasm and admiration while at it too. Rather than being a driving force for narrative her role becomes more like vehicle behind which exposition dumps are made on rather frequent basis. At times it feels she talks conscience wise for audience because by end even we are left clueless just like her about what really is this thing called Akaali or film overall supposed to be? And scariest part: This means there might be another one coming up.
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