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'Edaina Jaragochu' review: A jarring horror comedy which is neither scary nor funny

The movie is such a bad mishmash that the title might as well apply to you, the audience. Anything could happen to your fused brains.

Written by : Krishna Sripada

There are movies, which when you look back, feel like a massive pile of empty plastic bottles collected by a scrap-dealer - image borrowed from this movie itself - all dumped together in a sack. There is plenty of noise and barely any value in there, and probably some environmental damage to boot. This is one such movie.

And as a huge fan of Bobby Simha - who does well as a cold-blooded murderer running a betting den and living with a ghost - I feel cheated that this movie, directed by K RamaKanth, gave me a migraine I hadn't accounted for. Starring Vijay Raja as Jay and Pooja Solanki as Sasi, and Raghava, who has the makings of a good comedian, the movie starts on a decent note, despite the pathetic acting on display.

Sasi wants to start her own company, and Jay and his friends try to help her. In the process, they find themselves swindled at a betting den, having won and then lost a crore. In order to reclaim their money, they pursue Kali (Bobby Simha) to reach a palace, only to find that Kali lives there with his lover, Baby (Sasha Singh). Baby saves Kali many a time from other goons, but is killed in the process. Now, Kali and Baby's ghost enjoy the privacy of the palace, whose owners were brutally murdered by Kali. Law be damned - neighbours be damned, the world be damned. Jay and his friends have to survive now that they are being pursued by Kali and his ghost lover.

While you wouldn't expect any rationality from a horror-comedy, you'd surely expect that a horror-comedy, at the end of the day, would have horror and comedy. Edaina Jaragochu, on the other hand, gives you comedic horror, because the ghost overacts too much (why?) and horrific comedy (because nothing really makes you laugh, not even Vennela Kishore's guest appearance). Ajay Ghost as the exorcist (why does one have to be a trans person to be an exorcist? Why not, you may ask, but why does that have to be shown as a deformity in personality?) actually is the saving grace. He is funny in his incantations trying to do a Wanda, producing magical stuff from the hands to get rid of the ghost.

The pointlessness of the script, the two halves of which absolutely have no resemblance to each other, comes to a pointless conclusion rather quickly in the end. It is a bunch of college skits put together, where the three friends (and no, calling anyone the 'hero' in a movie such as this would be ridiculous) test your tolerance towards a display of IQ that is scraping the ground floor of a demolished building. They are irresponsible, reckless, and carry the confidence of people who think they can make money grow out of thin air. One of the friends even calls himself Money Plant - free cookies for the pun.

But, really, in the end, you are just sitting there wondering whose idea of fun this was. And as if the pain it inflicts on you isn't enough, there is an item song, at a dhaba. Seriously? Did they really not find a better use of their budget - and did they really think that an item song was going to lend any value to the script, especially when one of the characters, crazily-drunk, is dancing with a jar tied to his waist, the same jar in which the ghost that is out to kill them has been captured?!

All in all, Edaina Jaragochu, the movie is such a bad mishmash that the title might as well apply to you, the audience. Anything could happen to your fused brains. Protect it. This movie is going to neither scare you nor entertain you. It will irritate you!

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.

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