Connect Movie Review: The film starts on a happy note. Family holiday on the beach, good melody, happy days before Covid hit. Days when there was no hint of lockdown. Everything is hunky dory for Susanna who couldn’t have asked for a better deal. Then suddenly, everything gets shattered in a snap. Emotions rush out, and audience gets gets a sense of foreboding. The viewer is sucked into the world of ‘Connect’. The frantic activity in the hospital is conveyed literally in a few frames.
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When pandemic strikes
Susan (Nayanthara) and Dr. Joseph Benoy (Vinay Rai) and their pre-teen daughter Anna (Haniya Nafisa) are a happy family. The pandemic strikes and the good doctor rises to the occasion and puts himself on the line and empathetically tends to Covid-19 patients. As tragedy strikes, Anna undergoes immense suffering, something the audience is allowed to feel without being told in the form of scenes.
Connect is one of the few Indian horror films that build on the phenomenon of the Ouija board. According to Britannica, some people believe it can be used to communicate with the spirits of dead people. Then there is a reference to ‘seance’, a “meeting at which people attempt to make contact with the dead, especially through the agency of a medium.”
Technically sound film
Connect is a technically sound film. Sachin Sudhakaran and Hariharan have designed sound skilfully and are inventive. Manikantan Krishnamachary’s cinematography doesn’t give you unnecessary sinister elements at every turn. Prithvi Chandrasekhar’s background score is original. The director has kept away the usual elements of a horror film – eerie sounds, bizarre visual effects, and graphics associated with the genre.
Anna plays hide-and-seek with the audience. Her hair doesn’t allow the viewer from getting a full view of her face. And as the characters communicate via video calls (the story is set during the stringent 21-day lockdown period in the Summer of 2020), what is not shown also adds to a sense of mystery.
Film not consistent
The first 45 minutes are unconventional and gripping. And then the film runs out of steam. Despite a couple of stunning jump scares, ‘Connect’ is middling overall. The graph leading up to the exorcism stretch is not consistent. The narrative is satisfied with its spiritual convictions, giving the drama a raw deal.
Sathyaraj, as Susan’s father named Arthur Samuel, makes us feel his vulnerability. Nayanthara is commendable as well. Anupam Kher, who plays a Mumbai-based priest named Father Augustine, is forgettable. Haniya Nafis shows promise in the role of a troubled girl.
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