Chithini Review | A Carbon Dated Horror Drama That Craves for a Roast Rather Than a Review

Chithini is the latest movie from East Coast Vijayan that feels more like a facepalm fest from the word go. Remember that short film the social media trolled for the tough vocabulary? “Punyajanmangalkk labhikkunna poorvajanma saafallyamaanu…” I think East Coast Vijayan considered that movie as a worthy inspiration in dialogue writing, and in Chithini, we have characters speaking similarly to that. With an outdated theme of ghost revenge getting presented in the most laughable way possible, Chithini is the kind of film that is tailor-made for roasting rather than reviewing.

CI Alan, who recently got transferred to Wayanad, and his wife Seetha are the central characters of this movie. The place where Alan got posted witnessed certain unusual deaths, and the local people believed that it was the ghost of a Tamil woman named Chithini, who died years ago while she was carrying her baby. Alan’s efforts to find the truth behind Chithini’s death is what we see in this East Coast Vijayan movie.

Kadha Innuvare, Cup, and now Chithini, it seems like some directors are too sensitive about the lines they have written. While other movies were only becoming underwhelming because of the flawed dialogue delivery, Chithini almost became an unintentional comedy because of it. When Amith Chakalakkal’s Alan addresses his father-in-law as Mahamanthrikan during a bedtime conversation, you just feel like asking, “Bro, are you serious?” There is one action sequence in the second half of the movie where Seetha, Alan’s pregnant wife, handles goons using a fusion of Bharathanatyam and Kalaripayattu. It was hilarious to watch.

It’s a terrible movie in terms of writing and execution, and you just feel bad for the actors. Amith Chakalakkal is struggling to carry the Manorama weekly novel kind of dialogues written by East Coast Vijayan along with KV Anil. Vinay Forrt’s performance has a steady contrast throughout the film. While the character is saying lines that have elements of excitement, the demeanor of the character feels like Forrt is constantly asking himself why am I doing this to myself? Mokksha, who previously appeared in East Coast Vijayan’s Kallanum Bhagavathiyum, definitely has a pretty face and dancing talent. But her acting is way too theatrical, and I felt bad for dubbing artist Raveena Ravi. Raveena first had to make the ultra cheesy dialogues sound natural, and then she had the biggest challenge of cracking a lip sync with Mokksha’s performance. She really tried, but neither the dialogues nor those lips were helping her.

Johny Antony gets to play a slightly serious character in the movie along with Sudheesh, who gets to play a pivotal role in the film. Arathy Nair, as Nisha, is struggling to get her lines correct, and the fact that she is sharing screen space with someone like Vinay Forrt makes the performance even more difficult to watch. Enakshi Ganguly, who plays the title role, only has the pretty face to her credit. The performance is so bland that East Coast Vijayan relies on Fish Eye lenses to create horror.

In a way, the movie is a display of the arrogance of a filmmaker who is like I won’t evolve, and I will stick to the same old formula. The script feels like an AI-generated one that uses the haunted house and hill station stories of the 70s and 80s to create a horror drama. Since it is an East Coast Vijayan film, there are dance numbers and romantic songs that will only induce cringe. There is a sequence in the movie where Johny Antony’s character is miffed with Vinay Forrt’s character for fooling around with his daughter, and the judgmental uncle’s perspective of that scene would make you scream, “Grow up” to the filmmaker. The cinematography is a collection of visual gimmicks, including fish-eyed lenses and drone shots.

I guess when the producer, writer, and director of a movie are the same person, it gives delusional confidence to the maker to believe that his judgment about the subject and its treatment is correct. Even though it is designed as a horror drama, the big-budget Vipranasham feel of this movie makes it an unintentional horror comedy.