Aranmanai 4 movie review: A template Sundar C horror comedy aimed at the masses

The Aranmanai franchise has worked for director Sundar C in the past and he is back with the fourth installment. While some may not have liked his previous Aranmanai films, audiences can’t get enough of them as Aranmanai 3, released in 2021, proved to be one of the most commercially successful films of the year. Also read | Aranmanai 4 trailer: Sundar C, Tamannaah Bhatia and Raashii Khanna star in this spooky thriller about a ghost. Watch

Aranmanai 4 also follows a similar template that combines horror-comedy and moments of fun for the kids, thus attracting the family audience. Since it is a summer release, family audiences may find it as appealing as Aranmanai 3.

The starting point

The core of Aranmanai 4 is a big house in the middle of a forest, a supernatural force, a ghost, numerous cartoon characters, several children, a godman, beautiful women, poojas, a song in praise of the gods and Sundar C himself who brings the day to rescue. The story in this film revolves around Selvi (Tamannaah Bhatia) and her husband (Santhosh Prathap) who live in a big house in the forest with their two children. They are living a relatively happy life when, for some unknown reason, her husband suddenly tries to kill her and the children. The children survive this horrific attack, but the couple does not and the police inform Selvi’s brother, lawyer Saravanan (Sundar C), about this terrible incident. Saravanan and his aunt (Kovai Sarala) rush from the city to Selvi’s house and Saravanan decides to investigate what really happened.

As Saravanan along with the police investigate the entire tragedy, numerous unexplained deaths occur along with the appearance of a ghost in their house. Maestry (Yogi Babu) and Carpenter (VTV Ganesh) helped Selvi’s husband with his work and they also started helping Saravanan in his research. Now we also live with Dr.’s grandfather. Maya (Raashi Khanna) (Delhi Ganesh) in the house as he has been entrusted with the house. The plan is to sell the house so Maya can build a hospital and do social services.

During Saravanan’s investigation, he discovers a godman who seems to know more about this spirit and when the police catch him, he reveals that there is another malevolent presence as well. Why is the ghost haunting Selvi’s house? What is this other evil presence? How can they prevent the deaths and get rid of this presence? How does Saravanan manage to protect his family and find out what really happened to Selvi and her husband?

The performances

Director Sundar C has made sure to add more cast members to this franchise and apart from the above-mentioned cast, we also have director KS Ravikumar, Rajendran, Singampuli, Vichu Vishwanath and V Jayaprakash. So we have at least four comedians to make us laugh, while the glamor quotient is provided by Raashi Khanna. Given the large cast, many of them just come and go (as expected) and no one really stands out as we’ve all seen them play similar roles in other films as well. Tamannaah Bhatia, who is at the center of the story, plays the role of an emotional mother admirably and Raashi Khanna has also essayed her role as Maya. But it is the special performance of Khushbu (who is married to Sundar C) and Simran in the second half of the film, which was a pleasant surprise and gave the film a boost.

Final thoughts

Sundar C’s Aranmanai series is aimed at the masses who just want to entertain without too much logic – they want some jump scares, some funny dialogues and comic exchanges between the cast, some fights, an element of faith, a thumping song and the climax where evil is defeated and everyone is a happy family again. With four episodes now, the director seems to have adopted the concept, because this is exactly what Aranmanai 4 is about. Aranmanai 4 is a time pass and if you go in without expectations, you won’t come out excited about the film, but you won’t come out bitterly disappointed either.