 Polly here on the Latino Slant doing a special retrospective review, an American perspective if you will, on the 2022 film entitled Bouta Calam. And first of all, I want to thank you guys for recommending this movie. How was this spawned? Well, this was spawned with my reaction to a current film that's coming out. That's not out yet, but it's a horror film, Black and White, by the same director. And that gentleman, his name Raul Sarasvian. And he did this film a few years ago. And so we are tunneling back to give a retrospective review on Bouta Calam. Here's what I like to do in the video. And before we get to it, make sure you guys make sure you guys are subscribed to my channel. We do so much here on the channel. Here's what I like to do with this video. I want to give you my overall thoughts. Then I want to pull up a review from a few years ago that I checked out and want to read along and comment as well. So my initial thoughts on Bouta Calam is a very unique, very different horror film that's almost a, well, it really is a psychological thriller. And with no spoilers yet, it delves into the very real world and very real lives of a father, excuse me, of a mother and a son who both have issues of mental depression, whether it's angered management, addiction, to bipolar, to clinical depression. Both these people are dealing with it at their various ages, you know, the mom, the older mom, and then, of course, the younger man. Incredible. Incredible. I want to take also a second to talk about Malaya Lam cinema. Think of that cinema, that industry in India. I think there's about six or seven different industries in India as the underdogs, the underdogs, the Indies of Indies, the low budgets, however, with incredible stories. And just the ones you see that the kind of the bigger industries do, they do their repeats of these original works. That's right. They will, a year or two later, do their own retelling or, you know, just, it's very strange as far as how that works. But Malaya Lam is the originals. These guys really have a sense for story, have a sense for environment, relationships that are just so grounded. And at times, in this case, so terrifying. So I wanted to give my hats off to that industry. But the Kalam means the past. And what this director, who also is the writer, Sarasvian does, is that he leads it to interpretation, what the past means to us. Are we haunted by it? Is it the past of these two people? Or is it the past of this haunted space? And yes, this is, for lack of better words, a haunted house. But not haunted in the American sense that we're used to, you know, with the kind of over-the-top imagery and the scares. But this is a very, it's almost as if a water faucet is dripping, dripping, dripping, dripping until the last drop. And in between that time, that void, that, you know, where there's no sound, that's this type of horror. I mean, it's literally, literally the pacing of this, the pacing is purposely in this film, a monster. And it's something I haven't felt in a long time. Really, there's very little notes to any monsters, even though they do make themselves present, these entities. It is fantastically portrayed in this film. And if you are a fan of those kind of like open interpretations of kind of non-classical horror, psychological thriller, I strongly recommend that you check out this film. There is, I will say, one musical number that feels very out of place, even for an Indian Malayalam film, that I'm wondering what was the purpose of that, other than just to maybe give us a rest, a respite, if you will, from just how heavy this film is. And I get it. I do get it. That's probably the purpose of that song. Other than that, really, this is quite something I have not seen in Indian cinema. I haven't seen a lot of horror films as far as from India. I did see Tumbad. But this is even less of a, from my understanding, there's no evil entities that are part of one's religion that's connected to Bhutakalam. It is just ghosts, haunted people, this haunted space, where ghosts have stayed and they've driven people crazy. Yes, even past renters to suicide, to poisoning their loved ones, to death. I mean, it is quite something else. So with that said, what I'd like to do right now, I'd like to bring up the article in which I really feel, I checked out a few articles and some I agreed with, some others that I didn't. This is the one for me that really I connected to with a lot of what their thoughts were. So this is the one I wanted to do a retrospective with as far as in 2020 review from the News Minute. Bhutakalam Review, this Raveethi Shane Nigem film is a tightly scripted horror ride. The film directed by Raul Sadasvian is well-written and leaves room for multiple interpretations. Yeah, I totally, totally am with this. So here's what I'm going to do. We're going to read a little bit. We'll just do a little stop and go and all that good stuff. And I would love for you now to start commenting, did you see this film? Are you going to see this film? What are your thoughts on this film as you get ready for Sadasvian's new film? We'll talk about that at the end. So don't go anywhere. We're still getting into thick of it. Even before everything begins to go so wrong, you sense it coming. From the way the movie opens, an old woman with shiny white hair comes dawdling into a room and rests wordlessly by her sleeping grandson. We don't know then it is the grandson. He is just a young man waking up in the middle of the night. We don't know that. That's why I was like, ooh, what is going on here? And looking uneasily at the white-haired woman. There is no heavy background music, no upsetting sounds, but you still look at the whole scene with suspicion. Calmly through, the young man announces to his mother in the next room that grandmother is awake and that it's when you heave a sigh. Not a ghost then, but let the movie roll and your hunches seem to come true. We don't need to pat yourself on the back for being super intuitive. It is the director's foresight, settling the scene so calculating, preparing you gently for what's to come. For Buta Kalam is a well-prepped movie, scripted carefully and made richer by beautiful performances. The writer, Raul Sadasvian, who also directed the film, has done his homework really well. What is most likable about the script is that he's writing a full-length character of a middle-aged woman equally appealing and casting Ravathi to play the role. Even with all the many appreciable changes in Mala Yalam, cinema over the years, recent years, prominent older women characters have been few and far in between. And let us talk about that for a second. From it's my understanding that this woman won several awards for this performance. Her performance as the mother is multi-layered. It's shattering. It's present. This actor is present. There is no melodramatic acting. There is no fake moments. I was just so impressed with this woman's performance. And some of the things that she contemplates as she's kind of losing her mind as well, because you got to remember these two keep on living in the house. They're slowly losing it. This is heavy stuff. And to add to their own medical conditions, you're like, okay, is this because they are off? Like, you know, one's alcoholic addict. The other one's clinically depressed on meds. What is going on? Fantastic. Fantastic. This is how you tell a story. Ah, God, so cool. I love that. And it's so great that this woman got this role. And that really, it's these two that are the stars. It's a very small cast. But it's, you know, fantastically casted. The movie goes on. It's a familiar way home setting for a very peaceful, while stressed on the word peaceful. The mother and son are not exactly best of friends. She works as a teacher and runs a house with the little she earns. He's not a spoiled son wasting away. He's finished graduation, but the mother won't let him take a job far away from her. This is a familiar, domestic situation for many young people who are forced to stay close to their parents. The arguments over the dining tables, the walking away and the angry slamming of the doors. Yeah, we got a lot of that. That was good. That was really good. Even the interiors of the house are very real. The kitchen, especially where a good many scenes are shot with Ravathi making dosas. Not your handsome model kitchen with colorful little racks of vessels. It is the ordinariness of it that's charming. It is so easily fits into the lives of two disturbed individuals. The third, the grandmother passes away the morning after the grandson's whining. It's afterwards that the sounds you intuited start coming. Credit has to be given to Varul Satisfiyan here for building up all so quietly. And Shane Nigem, we're encapsulating you in Vinyu's fear. That character's name, one you might think is a pet name, what he was lovingly called when he was a boy. The grown up version hardly has a good moment at home. The only venue he hears now are covered in arguments and reprimands from an upset mother. It takes his friend and his girlfriend, whom he ignores when he has moods to cheer up Vinyu. Wow. Shane Nigem plays Vinyu. I loved this son. I loved this character because he is dealing with so, there's so much going on. One, a young man being held back. He's definitely talented, like it said. He graduated. He's got job offers, but they're just far away from home. So he can't leave home at this point because him and his mom were taking care of his grandmother and now moving forward. So he had prospects. He had some promise, but that promise has gone away quickly at the beginning of this film and then just becomes absolutely just so far removed that there's no possible way that this guy can even hold a conversation without freaking out with his friends towards the end of this film. You get Vinyu's angst, his anger at his mother, at his situation, and then add to insult a haunted house. Shane just does an incredible job with it all. And then you get them both. And it is not really until the end, and we're going to go a little more of a spoiler here, where they're both, they both see these entities and they have to get out of the house that they are both physically reconnected to fight to get out of that house that you see them coming through to that other side. And unlike a poltergeist where they're going through vortexes and other realities, it is a reality we see the entire time. They never leave the house, right? And venture off into the entity's realities. But it's them reconnecting together to get out of this house and into the reality of the same that you just totally buy. You're just like, yes, get out. So well done. So well done. Let's scoot on down towards a final paragraph in a half. At one point, the film may appear like a psychological thriller and you connect to its issues of the mind. In another, it can be entirely supernatural. And the third interpretation, it can be purely about relationships. And I say it's all of them. A slight oddity was the song that popped up in the middle of the film like it was placed there as an afterthought. The song is sweet, the young couple hanging out about together at the metro on the street side, and it was just sudden. Saying nige improves, he can sing right songs and compose neatly. Though somewhere, the music reminds me of a rex of Vajjan Vizhanan's work. However, an unexpected love song is more welcome any day rather than thinking of a possible ghost or two, lording outside of your room. And like I said, I think it was just more of just to alleviate the situation and boom, you jump right back in. And literally when the song ends, he's getting off his motorcycle and walking into his house. The only complaint is that the film does not come with any warnings of containing elements of horror in it. I, that didn't, I mean, I, that, that seems to me like a, like a weird statement. I mean, we, if that's the case, it presented itself as a drama, then it's still a psychological drama. It still is that. Those who dislike horror films therefore may be warned that though the movie is well made, it could mean some nightmares for you. Listen, it's nightmares no matter what with this film. It really is. And there's, there was even some, some people who didn't like at the end that the entities made themselves known that we even saw some of these entities very close to the, to the mother and son. They wanted to be more loosely interpreted like maybe if it's all in their head, maybe it's all their own depression, their own clinical, you know, situation. Listen, you can have it all exist because you understand during this horror film, and we'll wrap it up and thank you guys so much for sticking around for this retrospective. Please make sure that you are commenting. Let me know what you think. What I found also too is a wonderful character and a wonderful component from the real world coming into it was the counselor. The counselor was just like, okay, well, Vinyu is just a young alcoholic who just needs to get his life together. But then he goes out of his way and he starts doing research on the house past people who live there. What's going on with the owner? He talks to the owner and what happened with his son and the counselor is truly scared for the mother and the son. Fantastic role. I loved that actor, great component to really say, you know, this is just a little more than a clinical condition. A mother who's depressed on meds, a son who's got anger issues and is a blossoming alcoholic. I loved those components, so kind of those outside worlds, really those outside people of the house and being a part of the storyline. So well done, very unique, very different. And again, if you are kind of of that cloth where you want to see a different type of horror film, you want to see kind of like character and story slowly unfold one scene, this is a film for you. No jump scares, hardly any to none CGI. And I'm looking forward to the gentleman's new film which everyone is talking about. That's right. Raul Sarasvian is going to come out with a black and white horror film called Brahma Yogam starring Mamuti. And that is the one reaction we did that got us over 10,000 views and got me to do this review as well. Well, that's it. That was my little retrospective review of Bhuta Kalam, the past. And I hope you enjoy it. I hope you check it out. After this, get back to me. Let me know what you think of the film. Fantastic two leads again from Raul Sarasvian. Indian horror, man. They know what they're doing. OK, wherever you're at, guys, keep that slant muy fuerte. Gracias. you