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Connect Movie Review : A horror film with connectivity issues

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Connect review: Nayanthara’s film offers unadulterated horror experience

Connect review: nayanthara is her earnest best in the film, but it truly belongs to haniya nafisa..

Ashwin Saravanan is fast evolving as one of the most exciting filmmakers with a voice and style of his own. After making a strong mark with films such as Maya and Game Over, he reunites with Nayanthara for his latest outing, Connect. The film is unarguably one of the best horror films to come out of Tamil cinema. Unlike most horror films, Connect doesn’t rely too much on jump scares but it strongly believes in offering an unadulterated horror experience. The film is truly one of its kind as it manages to generate thrills without banking upon the usual horror cliches. (Also Read | Connect trailer: Anupam Kher makes Nayanthara perform exorcism on her possessed daughter in horror film without interval )

The film opens in a beachside shack and we are introduced to a beautiful family. The teenage daughter Anna (Haniya Nafisa) is passionate about music and wants to pursue it by enrolling in Trinity College of London. The father (Vinay) is supportive of Anna’s interest and persuades her to chase her dream. However, the mother (Nayanthara) feels she can’t leave without completing her formal education. The entire conversation is happening 24 hours before the national lockdown. Cut to the next scene, the lockdown is announced with the widespread Covid-19. Nayanthara and her daughter are stuck together for the next 21 days. A few days into the lockdown, both the mother and daughter test positive for the virus and they begin to quarantine themselves. However, the daughter starts experiencing weird symptoms, and her grandfather (Sathyaraj), who is in touch with his daughter via video calls, is convinced that she’s not alright. Their fears come true when they learn that Anna is possessed, and Nayanthara has to deal with the situation all alone.

Connect, as a horror film, is never in a hurry to impress the viewer with jump scares. It takes its time to build the mood and tone which really makes the overall experience unbelievably immersive. Both the visuals and the sound play a key role in making Connect a unique horror film. Since it’s a lockdown thriller that happens in a single location, all the conversations between the characters happen via digital screens. The cinematography is almost like a first-person shooter game because you feel like you’re in the house when the camera moves around. This style of shooting also makes the jump-scare moments truly inventive. There’s a terrific scene where Sathyaraj is trying to explain to Nayanthara that her daughter is possessed, but she’s not convinced. It’s one of the best scenes in the film. Most scenes are shot with the help of limited light and the output is truly pathbreaking.

Nayanthara is her earnest best in Connect, but the film truly belongs to debutante Haniya Nafisa, who has some demanding scenes when she’s possessed. This is a remarkable debut for her. Sathyaraj and Vinay have important cameos and they play their parts very convincingly. Anupam Kher shines in a small but very effective cameo. The music and cinematography play a very key role in making Connect an exceptionally good cinematic experience.

Film: Connect

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Cast: Nayanthara, Haniya Nafisa, Anupam Kher, Sathyaraj and Vinay

• Anupam Kher

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Published :

Last Updated : 25 Dec, 2022 07:14 AM

Published : 25 Dec 2022 07:14 AM Last Updated : 25 Dec 2022 07:14 AM

கனெக்ட்: திரை விமர்சனம்

மருத்துவரான கணவர் ஜோசப் (வினய்) கரோனாவால் இறந்ததும் அவர் மனைவி சூசனுக்கும் (நயன்தாரா) மகள் அனாவுக்கும் (ஹனீயா நஃபீஸ்), சூசனின் தந்தை ஆர்தர் (சத்யராஜ்)தான் ஆறுதல். அவர், இவர்களிடம் வீடியோ காலில் அவ்வப்போதுபேசிவருகிறார். இந்த நேரத்தில் சூசனுக்கும் அனாவுக்குமே கரோனா பாசிட்டிவ் வந்துவிட, வெவ்வேறு அறைகளில் தனிமைப்படுத்தப்படுகிறார்கள். அப்போது அனா செய்யும் ஒரு செயலால் அவரைத் தேடி வந்து ஒட்டிக்கொள்கிறது ஒரு முரட்டுப் பேய். யாரும் உதவி செய்ய இயலாத பொதுமுடக்கக் காலத்தில் அந்த அடங்கா பேயை எப்படி விரட்டி, தன் மகளை சூசன் மீட்கிறார் என்பதுதான் கதை.

கரோனா காலகட்டத்தில் ஜூம் மீட்டிங், வீடியோ கால் வியாபாரம் என கற்றுக்கொண்ட நமக்கு அதேமுறையில் பேய் விரட்டும் வேலையை சொல்லி இருக்கிறது, படம். ஏற்கனவே‘மாயா’, ‘கேம் ஓவர்’ படங்களில் அதிகமாக பயங்காட்டிய இயக்குநர் அஸ்வின்சரவணன், இதிலும் அந்தப் பயத்தையே தர முயன்றிருக்கிறார். அவரின்முந்தைய படங்களின் கதையில் இருந்த அழுத்தமும் பார்வையாளர்களை ஈர்க்கும் திரைக்கதையும் இதில் கொஞ்சம் ‘மிஸ்சிங்’.

மகளுக்குப் பிடித்திருக்கும் பேயை விரட்டுவதுதான் கதை என்பதாலும் அதற்கான காட்சிகள், பல ஹாரர் படங்களில் பார்த்தது என்பதாலும் பெரிதாக ஈர்க்கவில்லை. ஆரம்பத்தில் சுவாரஸ்யமாகச் செல்லும் கதை, பேய் விஷயத்துக்குள் வந்ததும் சுருண்டுவிடுகிறது. ஆனால், கடைசி 20 நிமிடக் காட்சிகள், படமாக்கப்பட்ட விதத்தில் படபடப்பையும் பீதியையும் தந்துபோகிறது.

அதற்கு, மணிகண்டன் கிருஷ்ணமாச்சாரியின் ஒளிப்பதிவும் அவர்பயன்படுத்திய லைட்டிங்கும் ரிச்சர்ட்கெவினின் படத்தொகுப்பும் பிரித்விசந்திரசேகரின் பின்னணி இசையும், சச்சின் சுதாகரன் மற்றும் ஹரிஹரனின் ஒலி வடிவமைப்பும் அழகாக உதவி இருக்கின்றன. என்றாலும் அது மட்டும் போதாதே!

மகளுக்கு ஏதோ ஆகிவிட்டது என்பதைப் புரிந்து தவிக்கும்போதும், அவளை மீட்கப் போராடும் ஒரு தாயின் மனநிலையை சிறப்பாக வெளிப்படுத்தி இருக்கிறார், நயன்தாரா. அவர் மகளாக நடித்திருக்கும் ஹனீயா நஃபீஸ், தெய்வத்தை நம்பும் தந்தை சத்யராஜ், கொடுமையான பேயை விரட்டும் மும்பை பாதிரியார் அனுபம் கெர், நயன்தாராவின் கணவராக வரும் வினய் உட்பட அனைவரும் பாத்திரமறிந்து நடித்திருக்கிறார்கள்.

‘ஆன்லைன் மூலம் பேயோட்டுதல்’ என்ற புதுமையில், இன்னும் வலுவான கதையை அமைத்திருந்தால் பார்வையாளர்களுடன் ஆழமாக ‘கனெக்ட்’ ஆகியிருக்கும் இந்த ‘கனெக்ட்’.

அன்பு வாசகர்களே....

இந்த ஊரடங்கு காலத்தில் வீட்டை விட்டு வெளியே வராமல் நமக்கு நாமே சமூக விலகல் ( Social Distancing) செய்து கொள்வோம். செய்தி ஊடகங்களின் வழியே உலகுடன் தொடர்பில் இருப்போம். பொதுவெளியில் இருந்து தனிமைப்படுத்திக் கொண்டு கரோனா பரவலைத் தடுப்பதில் நம் பங்கை முழுமையாக இந்த சமூகத்துக்கு அளிப்போம்.

CoVid-19 கரோனா தடுப்பு / விழிப்புணர்வு கையேடு - இலவசமாக டவுன்லோடு செய்து பயன்பெறுங்கள்!

- வாசகர்கள் நலனில் அக்கறையுடன் இந்து தமிழ் திசை

தவறவிடாதீர்!

•   “அவரு பேரு ஜோசப் விஜய்...”- ‘வாரிசு’ விழாவில் நடிகர் விஜய் சொன்ன குட்டிக்கதை
•   தேவையான விமர்சனமும், தேவையில்லாத எதிர்ப்பும்... - ‘வாரிசு’ விழாவில் நடிகர் விஜய் பேச்சு
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In a country where the government imposed a national curfew and a single mother, Nayanthara, notices eerie changes in her daughter's behaviour. On getting virtual help from a pastor played b... Read all In a country where the government imposed a national curfew and a single mother, Nayanthara, notices eerie changes in her daughter's behaviour. On getting virtual help from a pastor played by Anupam Kher who proposes an online exorcism. In a country where the government imposed a national curfew and a single mother, Nayanthara, notices eerie changes in her daughter's behaviour. On getting virtual help from a pastor played by Anupam Kher who proposes an online exorcism.

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Connect movie review: Nayanthara’s latest is technically sound, true-blue genre film

Connect movie review: ashwin saravanan delivers breathless thrills during the nayanthara starrer but the flat end takes something away from it..

They are a picture of happy family when we meet Susan ( Nayanthara ), her husband Joseph (Vinay), and their daughter Anna aka Ammu (Haniya Nafisa) for the first time in Ashwin Saravanan’s Connect. Covid is still the stuff you only see in dystopian films, and the family is at the beach, happily making plans about the future of their music-obsessed daughter.

Like lakhs of others, the pandemic destroys the dreams of this family as it hurtles through their life. Susan and Ammu are confined to their home during the lockdown while Joseph, a doctor, toils relentlessly to help Covid patients. He succumbs to the virus, and a devastated Ammu resorts to black magic to connect with her dead dad. Things don’t go well, and she ends up being possessed by a demon. On top of that, both the mother and daughter test positive for the coronavirus , which cuts them off from the outside world.

Connect doesn’t rely much on the plot as much as it does on its technical brilliance and astounding sound design. Ashwin has had a firm resolution about staying true to the horror genre and hence doesn’t really experiment with the story. The screenplay pans out exactly how you would expect it to. However, the breathless thrills that you are served with distract from the generic story. You expect the climax to be the high point of the film, but it never builds up to a crescendo.

In a way, that doesn’t seem to be what the director was going for with Connect. Despite all of the scares and technical bravado, Connect in its essence is about Susan’s character arc. Arthur (Sathyaraj), Susan’s father, pleads with her to have some belief in God. A friend tells her to have some kind of anchor in such trying times. Her final resolve to ‘believe’ was supposed to drive home the point, but it is not clearly etched out. It’s because we don’t really see her be one big skeptic in the first place. Or even the subtle depiction of her changes is eclipsed by the conspicuous technical work of the film.

Enough ink will flow while praising the technical brilliance of Connect, and it will be in no way unwarranted. The performances of Sathyaraj and Nayanthara make the film work. Even Anupam Kher as the Father, who only takes a brief screentime, makes us feels safe. With a few more tweaks in the screenplay, Ashwin Saravanan could have easily made a film like Searching (2018) or C U Soon (2020), as Susan’s video calls are used as a narrative device, and cinematographer Manikantan excels at pulling off this gimmick.

The biggest achievement of Ashwin Saravanan’s Connect lies in how, despite being a horror film, it is in touch with reality. While it’s true that cinema is seen as an escapist medium to forget the woes of the real world, there has been a total disconnect between the existing pandemic world and that of our Tamil mainstream films. Connect, living up to its name, finally bridges that gap by empathising with the ones who suffered during the pandemic. It takes us back to the times when we were confined to the four walls of our homes, fearing a threat we couldn’t fully fathom. Undoubtedly, it is in a sense triggering to see the character go through the same ordeal as we did, but it is also in a way cathartic. Again, it is pretty amusing that of all kinds of Tamil mainstream cinema, a true-blue genre has represented the ones that are still grieving.

Connect rating : 3/5

Connect director: Ashwin Saravanan

Connect cast : Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher

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Connect Movie Review: Nayanthara shines in technically brilliant horror thriller that is regular fare

Connect is directed by ashwin saravanan who has worked with nayanthara in maya. nayanthara and her husband vignesh shivan have produced this film. scroll down to read our review..

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• Anupam Kher is part of this interesting horror thriller.
• The movie is set in the times of the Covid pandemic.
• Connect features Haniya Nafisa as Nayanthara's daughter in this film.

Release Date: 22 Dec, 2022

Susan Joseph (Nayanthara) and her family are enjoying a wonderful break at a beach resort when her doctor husband, Joseph (Vinay Rai), gets called back to work urgently. It’s the outbreak of Covid-19 and Joseph ends up working 24/7 trying to provide care for the Covid infected patients. Meanwhile, Susan and her teenage daughter Anna aka Ammu (Haniya Nafisa) are confined to their home. The only way all of them can keep in touch with each other - and Susan’s father, Arthur (Sathyaraj) - is via Internet and video calls.

Unfortunately, Joseph contracts Covid as well, and passes away in the hospital, leaving his family shattered. He becomes a Covid warrior like thousands of others before and after him. A distraught Ammu, who never got to physically hold her father or even see him before he died, decides to reach out to him through a seance with an ouija board. And this is when things take an evil turn. Does she get to speak to her father? What happens next forms the crux of the story.

Connect is director Ashwin Saravanan’s fourth film and third horror flick. He’s working with Nayanthara for the second time (Maya was their first film together). He has aptly chosen the times of the pandemic to set this horror thriller in. There are flashes of brilliance in the film, but the thrills are few and far between. And this is what hinders the experience. Comparing his work in Connect to Maya and Game Over, one feels this is less true to who he is, as it is an average fare compared to his previous films.

Nayanthara delivers an outstanding performance as always, but young Haniya Nafisa is the surprise package. She has pulled off a somewhat difficult role with such ease and excellence, which shows remarkable acting maturity. Full props to Ashwin for selecting her for the role of Ammu. Sathyaraj and Anupam Kher lend a lot of value to the film as well.

Connect is based on the strong connection between a father and daughter, as well as Internet connectivity, obviously. We wish though that Ashwin had focused more on the mother-daughter bond as well as they are the ones who take the story forward and hold us throughout the film. Hence, in this case, emotional investment becomes limited, and the film enters the horror genre like The Exorcist or The Conjuring. Connect, unfortunately, just didn’t have enough thrills - like those films - to be classified as a pure horror film either.

Technically, the movie is brilliant. The cinematography by Manikantan Krishnamachary and music by Prithvi Chandrasekhar take the film up several notches. Editing by Richard Kevin must also be appreciated.

Produced by Rowdy Pictures, Connect is a film that belongs to Haniya Nafisa and the audience will remember her for a long time to come.

3 out of 5 stars for Connect.

Connect Review: Nayanthara Shines Bright In A Dystopian Drama That Thrives In The Dark

Connect review: the film connects with the audience in substantial ways without having to resort to the kind of in-your-face means that horror films usually foist upon the audience..

Nayanthara in Connect . (courtesy: YouTube )

Cast: Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Rating: Three stars (out of 5)

A supernatural thriller set in the time of Covid, Ashwin Saravanan's Connect has its share of jump scares as well as other genre tics. But, if you can tide over the ritualistic babble that it culminates in, it isn't one of those predictable, hackneyed horror films that merely seek to shock us out of our seats.

The screenplay, authored by the husband-wife writing team of Saravanan and Kaavya Ramkumar, alternates between the sombre and the nightmarish. The impact of the range of feelings that the film arouses is heightened significantly by the steady understated power of the lead performance by Nayanthara.

She shines bright in a dystopian drama that thrives in the dark. She uses her eyes and facial expressions rather than shrieks and squeals to convey fear and foreboding as the unknown creeps up on the sorted and unflappable woman she plays.

Connect , produced by Vignesh Sivan's Rowdy Pictures and released nationwide in Hindi a week after the original Tamil version hit the screen, weaves into its story of disease, death, divinity and the devil a complement of unsettling twitches that are triggered by a Covid-related tragedy and girl's response to it.

God and Satan are at war in a world torn asunder by sickness and sorrow. A little girl faces the brunt. A tormented woman fights to save her daughter. A grandfather offers constant advice online. An electronically connected pastor steps in to try and exorcise the evil spirit. Amid all the blather, the film stays firmly focussed on the mother-daughter relationship.

The emotional bond between the two women is thrown into complete disarray by a demonic possession. The script employs the bedevilment as a metaphor for a rampaging, devastating virus. The connect between the two is verbalised by the exorcist himself.

With its loud thuds, persistent knocks on the door, mysterious rumbles, fluttering curtains, flickering lights, eerie shadows in the dark, upturned objects, the works, the 99-minute Connect banks upon all the devices that one would expect in a horror film. Yet it manages to break away at crucial points from the practices ordinarily associated with the spooky business of peddling fear and heightening anxieties.

Connect , which reunites director Saravanan with lead actor Nayanthara after the 2015 neo-noir psychological drama Maya, examines dimensions of loss and grief through an occult phenomenon that that sets off a disquieting chain of events for a quarantining woman, Susan, and her young musician-daughter, Anna.

The pandemic and the lockdown have taken their toll on both. But the nature of the impact on the two isn't the same. The mother, to begin with, seems completely unperturbed by the crisis that hits her - and the world at large. The daughter, severely distressed, goes into a shell, an act that renders her vulnerable to a Satanic invasion.

Talking of an invasion, the possession of a human by the devil is akin in Connect to a home invasion by a hostile force from another world. Disease is a demon, and vice-versa, and it pushes Anna into an abyss from where only an exorcist can rescue her.

The two women are in separate rooms but the changes that Anna undergoes send ripples not only through the entire house in which they isolate themselves from the world and from each other, but also through the spaces that Susan's father Arthur (Sathyaraj) and a pastor-exorcist (Anupam Kher) occupy.

Connect is Saravanan's third directorial venture. He has established himself as a genre filmmaker with a distinct, novel style marked by keen empathy for women fighting off hurtful forces. In Maya, a single mother who works in ad films to make ends meet is haunted by a ghost.

In Game Over (2019), starring Taapsee Pannu, the heroine is a talented game developer grappling with PTSD, a direct consequence of a horrific rape.

In Connect , Saravanan portrays two women - one a mid-career professional in a position of authority, the other a gifted young girl looking forward to making a career as a musician. The latter's youthful hurry to branch out on her own creates friction between her and her mother, who is firm in her belief that the girl must complete her education before leaving home to pursue her dream.

Saravanan, with the aid of cinematographer Manikantan Krishnamachary, engages visuals, an interplay light and shade, skewed camera angles and movements and sound effects to conjure up an atmosphere of great unease and dread.

The film's early scenes, which are happy and filled with warmth as the family vacations in Goa, quickly give way to intimations of the dangers up ahead. The pandemic, and the lockdown that it necessitates, yanks Anna's doting dad, Dr. Joseph Benoy (Vinay Rai), away from the family because the hospital needs him to be on duty 24X7.

The characters from here on are unable to make physical contact with each other. They converse on Zoom calls. The restrictions on physical interactions inevitably lead to unnerving distancing and disorientation. The doctor can connect with his wife and child only through digital means. Anna, the youngest, is the worst affected by the sudden forced separation.

Susan and Anna are suspected to be Covid-positive. As they await their test reports, they isolate within the house while they keep in touch with the girl's grandfather. Susan and her dad soon begin to feel that something is seriously wrong with Anna. They seek help on her behalf.

Nayanthara stellar performance is supported admirably by Sathyaraj and Anupam Kher. Newcomer Haniya Nafisa, cast in the challenging role of a girl possessed, is no less impressive.

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When the confrontation between the devout and the diabolic reaches a crescendo, the pitch of the film is amped up considerably. Connect is never, however, in danger of drowning in shrillness because at all other times, the director does not budge from his controlled and muted methods to tell a story that vacillates between the real and the spectral.

Connect connects with the audience in substantial ways without having to resort to the kind of in-your-face means that horror films usually foist upon the audience.

Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai

Ashwin Saravanan

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Connect Movie Review: Delivers some chills, but misses out on a lot more

Rating: ( 2.5 / 5).

From what we’ve seen of Ashwin Saravanan, it is clear that the filmmaker doesn’t really go for the low-hanging fruits when making genre films. In his fascinating debut, Maya , the addition of the ‘movie within a movie’ trope made it all the more interesting. Similarly, in his intriguing sophomore, Game Over , the ‘you are not playing the game, you are the game’ trope made it all the more engaging. So, one can’t really be faulted for expecting his latest, Connect , to be more than just an exercise in exorcism. Although Connect starts strongly with a bright tale freefalling into the depths of darkness, courtesy of the pandemic, the film sparingly hits the high notes of the genre while just about managing past the finish line.

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Cast: Nayanthara, Vinay Rai, Sathyaraj, Nafisa Haniya

Ashwin introduces the protagonists —a lived-in couple Susan (Nayanthara) and Joseph (Vinay Rai), their daughter Anna (Haniya Nafisa), and Susan’s father Arthur (Sathyaraj)— on a holiday, with a breezy song, which betrays a sense of melancholy. We are just a day or two ahead of the nationwide lockdown, and Joseph is a doctor who is asked to return to the hospital to take care of the never-ending crowd of patients. Tragedy strikes the family as Joseph joins the list of the many frontline workers who sacrificed their lives for the safety of the world. An already strained equation between Susan and Anna becomes even worse, and then, we start dealing with a heady mix of seances, possessions, purgations, and of course, exorcisms.

There is no doubt that the buildup to the exorcism in Connect boasts of a few effective scares. It might not be the ones that make us watch the film through our fingers, but it definitely does enough to keep us on the edge of our seats. Even though the type of scares and the timing of it too feel predictable, the usage of electronic screens allows editing transitions to be a novel affair. Whenever the screen goes to pitch black, or the internet connection goes cold and the screen starts buffering, there is a definite increase in adrenaline. Although, we have seen this style of narrative in films like Searching , and C U Soon , Ashwin and his team smartly find a way around the compact nature of the medium to give us a non-claustrophobic feeling. While this does rob us of the tension that pervades through such films, Connect tries its best to achieve this with a constant tussle between the idea of loneliness and seeking help.

Be it in Naane Varuvean earlier this year or Connect , it is interesting how therapy and not exorcism is the first step towards helping the child in trouble. What happens after therapy might not fit into the rationale of scientific thinking, but the normalisation of the treatment is a pertinent reflection of the changing times. Even the Father who comes for a diagnosis of Anna’s predicament says the illness could be one that requires therapy or one that requires a spiritual intervention. However, the film falters a lot when it comes to establishing the urgency of the possession and its after-effects. Surprisingly, Connect really works on the comedy front, and full points for mixing a few laughs amidst all those scares without becoming yet another ‘horror-comedy’ film that is churned out dime-a-dozen from Tamil cinema.

This disconnect stems from the rather stilted acceptance of Susan about the turmoil in her life after the possession of her daughter. Nayanthara plays Susan with an alarming lack of urgency that is so disconcerting. How does she not feel petrified every living moment after seeing her daughter do demonic things? How does she not feel shaken to her core after being 'chokeslammed' by her daughter? The emotional distance between us and Susan is perplexing, and it is odd that even Anna’s predicament doesn’t really move us. We are invested in the scares and not the ones who are going through literal horrors. And even the immersive cinematography (Manikantan Krishnamachary), spine-chilling music (Prithvi Chandrasekhar), and brilliant sound design doesn’t help us throw all our weight behind the travails of Susan and Anna.

Connect really feels underwhelming simply because Ashwin, and his co-writer Kaavya Ramkumar, have set the bar really high. The film is underwhelming because we have seen the beats before, and yet our heart anticipates much more. At one point, early in the film, when we see frontline workers making the ultimate sacrifice, one can’t help but think how a lot of them have been almost forgotten now by the majority. We have so adapted to the post-pandemic world that Connect almost feels like Ashwin and Kaavya reminding us of a rather grim time in the not-so-faraway past of human history. With a brief sojourn into the idea of loneliness, Connect really works in the space where it nudges us to reflect on our own lives during the pandemic. However, when it comes to the horror elements, Connect betrays a sense of superficiality. There is a considerable amount of spook, and a sense of ingenuity, for sure, but Ashwin Saravanan has raised the bar to a decent high that we don’t walk into his films just to be satisfied for a few frights, some gimmicks, and half a heart.  

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Connect Movie Review (2022)

The emotional stakes are low, but as a scare-dispensing machine, ashwin saravanan's 'connect' does a pretty decent job.

Connect Movie Cast & Crew

There are times Ashwin Saravanan's Connect appears to be a COVID-era homage to The Exorcist . Here, too, we have a single mother, played by a gritty Nayanthara, alternating faith and fear. Here, too, we have a teenage daughter, played very nicely – at least from the few scenes she is "normal" – by Haniya Nafisa. Here, too, the father is absent – rather, he is dead. And he is replaced by both the Father from the local Church as well as God, the ultimate Father. And finally, there is the triumph of religion over science, which has failed to save mankind from a deadly outbreak. The demon that possesses the daughter, therefore, could be seen as a manifestation of the virus itself, which – like in The Exorcist – only faith can destroy. Then again, you don't have to go so far and "read" this film at all. As a casual moviegoer, you can simply say you are strapping yourself into a scare-dispensing machine – and on that level, Connect does a pretty decent job.

So let's talk about the surface-level "horror film" before getting into more interpretation and analysis. After an early happy-family scenario (which includes Sathyaraj as the grandfather), COVID sets in. And thereon, for a while, the frames are composed in a way that there is only one person in front of the camera. Everyone's talking to each other on video screens, yes, but even so, we don't see the person talking and the person at the other end in the same frame – say, through an over-the-shoulder shot. Manikandan Krishnamachari is the cinematographer and his deep compositions are very still, very formal. The effect is that of utter disconnection and loneliness. We don't even get a scene of mother and daughter, say, having dinner or watching TV together. Only when it's time to drive the devil away do we see groupings of people. For that , it takes a village. Or at least, a bunch of religious-minded people connected by video calls.

There are a few cool tricks that come from this video-call scenario. When the connection is wonky and the call hangs, we are kept away from whatever's happening – and when the connection is restored, BAM, the jump scare hits hard. Another constant in the visuals is the presence of doors, which are a symbol of the title. They "connect" the various rooms of a house. But they also connect worlds. In sci-fi or horror novels, we often hear of someone opening a "door" to another world. In Connect , it is the spirit world. Hit by depression, the daughter decides to use a medium to contact her father, whom she was closer too. (She informally called him " nee ", while she calls her mother " neenga ".) And the genie is out of the bottle.

Ashwin and his technical team get through the "scares" part of the film with proficiency. (There's an inspired sequence revolving around a mask.) And the title is extrapolated in different ways – like the lack of "connect" between the daughter and her overprotective mother, or the mother's gradual lack of "connect" with religion, or even the loss of "connect" over wi-fi. Above all, there's this pandemic, which has made us all lose "connect". But the underlying narrative is derivative and predictable. One reason is that the film does not show anything we have not seen in earlier stories about exorcism. The voice-deepening of the victim, the ability to speak other languages, the ability to know things that are impossible for a "normal" person to know, the big-finale exorcism – it's all in here.

But more importantly – or perhaps disappointingly – there's no psychological depth, which was such a major part of the director's earlier film, Game Over . There are many interesting angles – like how mediums make money through evil spirits. But none of these are explored beyond the mere statement or depiction of such a situation. I am all for shortened running times ( Connect runs about an hour-forty, with an intermission), but not at the cost of involvement. To go back to The Exorcist , one of the most resonant emotional layers was that the devil was driven out by a priest who had doubts about the existence of God. That is what separates a movie from a scare-dispensing machine. For all the craft in Connect , what's missing is that solid emotional connect.

About Author

Baradwaj Rangan

National Award-winning film critic Baradwaj Rangan, former deputy editor of The Hindu and senior editor of Film Companion, has carved a niche for himself over the years as a powerful voice in cinema, especially the Tamil film industry, with his reviews of films. While he was pursuing his chemical engineering degree, he was fascinated with the writing and analysis of world cinema by American critics. Baradwaj completed his Master’s degree in Advertising and Public Relations through scholarship. His first review was for the Hindi film Dum, published on January 30, 2003, in the Madras Plus supplement of The Economic Times. He then started critiquing Tamil films in 2014 and did a review on the film Subramaniapuram, while also debuting as a writer in the unreleased rom-com Kadhal 2 Kalyanam. Furthermore, Baradwaj has authored two books - Conversations with Mani Ratnam, 2012, and A Journey Through Indian Cinema, 2014. In 2017, he joined Film Companion South and continued to show his prowess in critiquing for the next five years garnering a wide viewership and a fan following of his own before announcing to be a part of Galatta Media in March 2022.

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CONNECT MOVIE REVIEW CLICK TO RATE THE MOVIE

Connect is a Tamil horror film directed by Ashwin Saravanan. The script has been written by the director in collaboration with Kaavya Ramkumar. Starring Nayanthara as the lead, the film has Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, Vinay and Haniya Nafis playing the supporting roles. Vignesh Shivan produced the film under the banner Rowdy pictures.

The peace of a family is shattered when the daughter tries to connect with her deceased father through an ouija board. Realms of the existing and the departed get entangled moving the plot towards a darker sphere.

Nayanthara playing Susan is very convincing for the title Lady Superstar. She proves why she is one of the best in the business through her electrifying yet endearing performance. Sathyaraj's innocence helps a mile in depicting the helplessness of the situation. The performance of Haniya Nafis astounds in every frame. Not to forget Anupam Kher who makes a return to Kollywood though in a bounded role.

Setting the film on the backdrop of lockdown adds a new flavour to the genre. The film begins in an usual way but takes a giant turn when eerie events suspend itself. There are two solid moments where we will taste the bitter nature of fear. Though the film is not devoid of jumpscares it is used only as a secondary tool to induce terror while the real horror lies in the script and its execution.

Emotional connection between the characters keeps fleeting which makes the film stand at a distance from the audience. Runtime of 98 minutes is utilised to the maximum to evoke the sense intended by the script. The film peaks at the pre climax portions, stuns during the climax and ends on a breezy note.

Every film from Ashwin Saravanan is technically well built in all aspects. He has that knack to construct his own world by squeezing what is necessary for the script. In Connect, we have Manikandan lighting the frames while Prithvi Chandrasekar adds much needed musical cues inducing horror and terror from time to time.

Connect is definitely a daring attempt which succeeds in almost all the aspects but falling short only in the standard set by the director from his previous films. As a whole, the Theatrical experience of connect will have an imprint on everyone who immersed themselves on to the screen.

CONNECT VIDEO REVIEW

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REVIEW RATING EXPLANATION

பிரேக்கிங் சினிமா செய்திகள், திரை விமர்சனம், பாடல் விமர்சனம், ஃபோட்டோ கேலரி, பாக்ஸ் ஆபிஸ் செய்திகள், ஸ்லைடு ஷோ, போன்ற பல்வேறு சுவாரஸியமான தகவல்களை தமிழில் படிக்க இங்கு கிளிக் செய்யவும்      

CONNECT NEWS STORIES

நயன்தாரா நடித்த 'CONNECT'.. பிரீமியர் ஷோ வில் படம் பார்த்த G.P முத்து!

நயன்தாரா நடிக்கும் 'CONNECT'.. ஸ்பெஷல் ஷோ பார்க்க திரண்ட பிரபலங்கள்! வைரல் வீடியோ

"லவ் யூ மேம் 😍".. கூட்டத்தில் இருந்து கேட்ட சத்தம்.. அடுத்த கணமே நயன், விக்கி கொடுத்த ரியாக்ஷன்!!

CONNECT பட டிரெய்லரை பார்த்து ஜான்வி கபூர் சொன்ன விஷயம்.. பதிலளித்த விக்னேஷ் சிவன்!

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Anupam Kher

ஐயோ, அவருக்கு என்ன ஆச்சு பாரு 😱 படபடப்பான WIKKI 😰 NAYANTHARA-வ பாக்க TERROR TASK 👻 #CONNECT VIDEOS

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Home » Reviews » South Indian Movie Reviews

Connect Movie Review: Nayanthara Leads A Good Experiment With Idea & Technique But Suffers A Draught Of Emotions

One cannot ignore how predictable it becomes in parts..

Star Cast: Nayanthara, Haniya Nafisa, Sathya Raj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai & ensemble.

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

What’s Good: The idea of the movie and the world it decides to set it into. Also, how technically sound it is.

What’s Bad: It chooses to only scratch the surface and suffocates in its own constraints.

Loo Break: Nothing so bad that it puts you off till a point you ignore. But you can if it can’t wait because there are predictable bits too.

Watch or Not?: I would suggest waiting for its OTT release since you aren’t missing anything big if you miss it in the theatres.

Language: Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam & Hindi (with subtitles).

Available On: In Theatres Near You.

Runtime: 105 Minutes

A mother (Nayanthara) and her daughter (Haniya) are tested positive for COVID-19 after the demise of her husband. In Quarantine the daughter decides to summon her father’s spirit to talk to him and ends up opening a gate for a demon instead. A ghost and the quarantine become a deadly match quite literally.

Connect Movie Review: Script Analysis

Going forward as we live in the post-pandemic world with its effect still feeling strong (God this feels like talking about the Thanos Blip), it is going to be an interesting thing to see how filmmakers see it and how they weave stories around it while reflecting on the time we as a collective went through. Few weeks ago Madhur Bhandarkar released his take with India Lockdown , an unfiltered yet confused take on the phase. Now comes in Connect, a whole new idea and one that has a lot of mettle.

Written by Ramkumar Kaavya and Ashwin Saravanan, Connect is a story so fresh that you can relate to it because most of us have been imprisoned in our own houses in the past two years. Now, what if one of the members was possessed by a spirit and there is no way you can get out of the house? There is a whole lot of substance and power in this idea which the two even partially explore.

The biggest hurdle is to create a perspective. Who exactly is watching this unfold in a house with two participants? So the makers take the Searching or C U Soon route where the majority of the movie takes place through Zoom calls. So the person on the other side of the call is your window into the world. The movie is technically very sound. It uses every possible thing about the Zoom ecosystem to create intrigue. Be it the recording, the buffers that the network creates, or even the noise that it quickly catches. One can see the efforts.

Talking about the haunting part of it might take away the fun. But one cannot ignore how predictable it becomes when it solely gets into that space. This draws your attention to the lack of emotions. For a story about a parent about to lose their child has no emphasis on it or doesn’t let that angle breathe at all. Rather there is a melodramatic scene that lands nowhere followed by an exorcism attempt that we have seen in multiple films. Even the world-building beyond the conflict is weak because it appears like done to just fill a void and give the characters an identity.

Connect Movie Review: Star Performance

Nayanthara is very invested in telling this story and the fact that she is craving some new experiences is evident with the fact that this is much different than her latest outings. The actor tries her level best to make this character work but the aforementioned emotional draught affects her arc too.

Haniya Nafisa plays the possessed daughter is amazing for a debutant. She manages to irk you and even scare you a bit with her few out of the blue. Sathya Raj adds a whole lot of melodrama to the film which does feel like a misfit at points.

Anupam Kher’s performance though is the weakest of the lot. It feels like he was hired the same day he shot because he is literally reading everything out of a paper kept behind the camera. At least it looks like that. He never becomes the character.

Connect Movie Review: Direction, Music

Ashwin Saravanan does walk into this one with a very ambitious vision and one can see it through how he envisions and plots the entire narrative. But only the main conflict will never land well if the world is not built as a whole and with the same conviction.

DOP Manikantan Krishnamachary does have a tough job in hand and he does it well to an extent that idea of watching the film through screens lands well. The background score is apt and good.

Connect Movie Review: The Last Word

Connect is a great idea that deserved much more than just good technique.

Connect Trailer

Connect releases on 22nd December, 2022.

Share with us your experience of watching Connect.

For more recommendations, read our Ammu Movie Review here.

Must Read: Naane Varuvean Movie Review: Dhanush Starrer Neither Promises Nor Delivers, Just Exists With No Purpose

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• Home » Movies » Connect Movie Review

Connect review: Watch this horror film for debutante Haniya Nafisa

While Nayanthara is okayish as a mother, Sathyaraj and Anupam Kher were convincing in their respective roles.

Published:Dec 21, 2022

Nayanthara's 'Connect' marks her second collaboration with director Ashwin Saravanan after their super hit flick 'Maya'. (UV_Creations/Twitter)

Technical aspects elevate a routine story.

Connect (Telugu)

• Cast: Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai, and Haniya Nafisa
• Director: Ashwin Saravanan
• Producer: Vignesh Shivan
• Music: Prithvi Chandrasekhar
• Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes
• Cast: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Emraan Hashmi, and Revathy
• Director: Maneesh Sharma
• Producer: Aditya Chopra
• Music: Pritam Chakraborty
• Runtime: 2 hours 35 minutes

Nayanthara’s multilingual horror flick Connect is releasing in theatres this weekend, on 22 December. It is taking on biggies like Ravi Teja’s Dhamaka and Vishal’s Laththi at the box office.

Does this horror flick, which rides solely on Nayanthara’s popularity, have enough substance to connect with the audience? Let’s find out in our review:

A teenage girl Anne (Haniya Nafisa) is taken over by an evil spirit when she attempts to speak to her late doctor-father using an Ouija Board. The father had succumbed to Covid during the lockdown.

Anne’s mother Susan (Nayanthara) and grandfather Arthur (Sathyaraj) are worried about her and seek the help of Father Augustine (Anupam Kher).

Father Augustine decides to use exorcism to free Anne from her demons. But he warns Susan and Arthur that it will be a tough one. Since there is a lockdown, he does the exorcism online, which makes things difficult.

How he performs the exorcism to save Anne from her demon forms the main plot of the movie.

Gripping narration makes up for routine story

The audiences have seen enough movies where a character is under the spell of the evil spirit and the kith and kin make efforts to drive them away. Exorcism is not new to horror movie lovers, and Connect is no exception. In fact, several shots and tricks in the film remind us of past horror movies.

Despite the cliches, director Ashwin Saravanan — who also wrote the script — has succeeded in engaging the audience with his narration. Though there are some dull moments, most of the movie is gripping.

Haniya Nafisa shines in her acting debut

‘Connect’, yet another h horror thriller from Ashwin Saravanan, has no intermission. (UV_Creations/Twitter)

Connect got all its attention due to the presence of star heroine Nayanthara. But it is Haniya Nafisa who shines in this flick.

Singer and social media influencer Haniya Nafisa has made her acting debut with this horror film. She impresses with her performance as a girl under the influence of a demon.

Nayanthara plays the role of her mother — and she is okay.

Anupam Kher and Sathyaraj play key roles. With their vast experience, they prove that roles like these are a cakewalk for them.

Technical crafts elevate a regular story

Most of the film is shot indoors and cinematographer Manikantan Krishnamachary has done a good job, within the limits of the storyline.

It is a good decision and also an experimental one to keep the movie limited to 99 minutes. The makers decided to screen the film without an intermission. It is to be seen how this experiment fares.

The shorter runtime ensures that the momentum does not dip. Editor Richard Kevin did a notable job.

Music director Prithvi Chandrashekhar adds to the impact with an impressive background score.

Connect is a horror movie based on exorcism and it gets its popularity from Nayanthara’s presence. But Haniya Nafisa leads the movie.

In a nutshell, it is strictly for horror movie lovers!

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Connect (U/A) 22/Dec/2022 Horror, Thriller 99mins

Critics Review

Very old wine tried to be put in a new bottle.

A technically rich film with an unique approach style. But the core essence is extremely disappointing as there�s nothing to specify as a story. Also, the happenings are as familiar as it can be for a horror movie. (more)

Source: Ashwin Ram, MovieCrow

A horror film with connectivity issues

The jump scares are quite convincing, and the dramatic presentation of the demon works to a certain extent. The major drawback is the content. Everyone knows that Ashwin can convincingly pull off horror genre films, as he has done it before. But then, it's also his responsibility to write a script that creates some sort of "connection" with the viewers. It's okay to write a script without any backstory for the dead or the evil, but then there needs to be a revelation connecting all the dots. (more)

Source: Logesh Balachandran, Times Of India

Nayanthara shines in technically brilliant horror thriller that is regular fare

Connect is based on the strong connection between a father and daughter, as well as Internet connectivity, obviously. We wish though that Ashwin had focused more on the mother-daughter bond as well as they are the ones who take the story forward and hold us throughout the film. Hence, in this case, emotional investment becomes limited, and the film enters the horror genre like The Exorcist or The Conjuring. Connect, unfortunately, just didn�t have enough thrills - like those films - to be classified as a pure horror film either. (more)

Source: Latha Srinivasan, India Today

Nayanthara's film offers unadulterated horror experience

Nayanthara is her earnest best in Connect, but the film truly belongs to debutante Haniya Nafisa, who has some demanding scenes when she�s possessed. This is a remarkable debut for her. Sathyaraj and Vinay have important cameos and they play their parts very convincingly. Anupam Kher shines in a small but very effective cameo. The music and cinematography play a very key role in making Connect an exceptionally good cinematic experience. (more)

Source: Haricharan Pudipeddi, Hindustan Times

Quite pedestrian by Ashwin Saravanan's standards

Don�t get me wrong. The movie is not shot on a smartphone. It�s just that the smartphone camera�s gaze acts as the primary camera with which we see the drama unfolding. For a horror movie, the possibilities are endless. This is a brilliant move by the filmmaker. Because the characters use smartphones to communicate with each other and to show what�s happening in the house, we get a feeling that Connect is downloading right in front of our eyes. Another brilliant move is to do away with the intermission (its runtime is 99 minutes). Which makes the buffering seamless. (more)

Source: Srivatsan, The Hindu

Nayanthara's latest is technically sound, true-blue genre film

The biggest achievement of Ashwin Saravanan�s Connect lies in how, despite being a horror film, it is in touch with reality. While it�s true that cinema is seen as an escapist medium to forget the woes of the real world, there has been a total disconnect between the existing pandemic world and that of our Tamil mainstream films. Connect, living up to its name, finally bridges that gap by empathising with the ones who suffered during the pandemic. It takes us back to the times when we were confined to the four walls of our homes, fearing a threat we couldn�t fully fathom. Undoubtedly, it is in a sense triggering to see the character go through the same ordeal as we did, but it is also in a way cathartic. Again, it is pretty amusing that of all kinds of Tamil mainstream cinema, a true-blue genre has represented the ones that are still grieving. (more)

Source: Kirubhakar Purushothaman , Indian Express

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