Jackson Durai ( ஜாக்சன் துரை )

 

Director: Dharani Dharan

Music: Siddharth Vipin

Cast: Sibiraj, Sathyaraj, Bindu Madhavi 

An investigator arrives in an old village and falls in love with a local woman whom he decides to marry, but must endure several days in a haunted house with her original suitor to win her father's approval.

Full episodes of laughter with few jerky spine-chilling moments in first half gives a real impression that the post-intermission sequences are going to keep your spines more chilled with blend of rib-tickling moments. Dharani Dharan, who comes straight from the passable debut directorial ‘Burma’ fills us with hope that he is gonna shoot the stars with second outing. But what turns out to be a bizarre in the second hour, with a much deplorable scenario, where the basic plot itself becomes too comic to handle and for most it turns out to a sleepy affair too.

The tale traverses through the assignment upon a low-profile cop (Sibiraj) to investigate upon a paranormal activity happening in Ayanpuram, a village near Salem, which is terrorized by a ghost named ‘Jackson’. As soon as he reaches the village, he falls in love with a good looking belle (Bindu Madhavi) and decides to marry her too. On approaching her father, who happens to be the village head, the situations get tougher as the cousin boy (Karunakaran) too approaches with the proposal. To settle the disputes, father places a challenge for the two.. They have to remain inside the haunted bungalow for 7 days, which is known as the most dreaded supernatural activities. The winner, obviously the SURVIVOR can marry the girl.

The episodes involving Sibiraj and Yogi Babu, especially the latter’s dialogue slang and witty lines with sense of timing are major plus.

The encounters of Sibiraj and Karunakaran in the haunted house, especially the sequence where the latter one reacts to the lady ghost and the little boy turns you crazy with laughter.

Overall, Jackson Durai holds an intriguing tale that keeps it apart from stereotypical scary horrors, but it comes to treatment of screenplay, it fails to stick on right momentum and offer more scariness.