Review of movie Praana

×

Rating:3/5

Is one really free in this current society? Tara Anuradha, a successful writer and an independent woman is in a solo journey to find the meaning of freedom. The writer, who challenges fundamentalists and hesitates to take police protection after publishing her controversial book Music of Freedom, accidentally reads a news about a haunted house in the highlands. Brave and adventurous, Tara (enacted by Nithya Menen), who has been craving for a break, chooses to live in that house. She begins her stay by fixing three cameras in the drawing room to record the happenings in the house and also to find out if ghosts really exist. The single-character movie progresses as she starts questioning the idea of freedom and intolerance in the society.

The concept of a movie with one character immediately triggers curiosity as it is always interesting to figure out how one person can effectively manage to hold the attention of the audience for the duration of the film. For that, the movie will have to depend entirely on the shoulders of that one actor. Nithya as Tara does it. Her character interestingly communicates with the world using different properties such as toys, telephone, television, thoughts, words, books and sometimes even lights. 

The combination of well-crafted visuals of PC Sreeram, moving sound design by Resul Pookutty, a well-established, claustrophobic and isolated setting, and VK Prakash’s direction has worked together to create a right atmosphere. Above all, it is the performance of Nithya Menen, as the solo human character in the film that elevates the movie’s standard.