Sumathi Valavu Movie Review: Outdated tropes haunt this unremarkable horror comedy

Sumathi Valavu Movie Review:

A deep forest in 1963. A group of Tamil-speaking travellers are arguing near a curve in the Kulathupuzha woods. Some are anxious, others cautious. Legend has it that the road nearby is haunted, and only a fool would risk it after dark. One man, stubborn and dismissive, sets off with his frightened wife. They reach a waterfall, where a woman appears. She is graceful, glowing and strange. The couple freezes. The screen cuts to black. With this moody prologue, Sumathi Valavu begins not with dry exposition, but with atmosphere and intrigue. It is a promising start. Director Vishnu Sasi Shankar, working again with writer Abhilash Pillai after Malikappuram, taps into a real-life Kerala myth about a woman named Sumathi whose tragic end gave rise to local ghost stories. You expect the film to build on this eerie premise. Instead, it gets sidetracked by a flood of outdated ideas.

Director: Vishnu Sasi Shankar
Cast: Arjun Ashokan, Malavika Manoj, Balu Varghese, Sidharth Bharathan, Saiju Kurup

The main story unfolds in the mid-90s, when one of Malayalam's greatest horror classics Manichithrathazhu was still fresh in memory. Appu, runs a video cassette shop and is seen as the village coward. Long ago, it was rumoured that he helped a girl named Malu elope through Sumathi Valavu at night. The gossip ruined his reputation. Though Appu has always denied it, no one believes him. Since then, the curve remains feared, even by forest officials. As the village stays haunted by Sumathi’s legacy, the film starts piling on subplots. There is a romance between Appu and Bhama, a teacher who first wants nothing to do with him. There is Mahesh, Malu’s brother and a no-nonsense army man, who returns home to find out what happened to his sister Malu. There is also Bhadran, a local wolf in sheep’s clothing who makes life difficult for everyone, especially women. You get romantic tension, a missing person angle, corrupt police, ghostly sightings, workplace harassment, school life quirks, and more. The horror slowly becomes just one strand in a noisy web of family drama and small-town conflict. Which is disappointing, because the film does have few effective spooky moments. One sequence stands out: a woman in labour is stranded near the curve at night, and the hallucinations that follow are tense and well-staged. The sound design shines here, and the visuals are timed with care. But the scene goes too far with a graphic image that feels gratuitous and forced.

The humour in the film mostly falls flat. Some jokes feel dated, which may be intentional given the setting, but they do not work. There are shades of Siddique-Lal's Godfather in the family rivalries and even echoes of Meesha Madhavan. But Sumathi Valavu lacks the comic rhythm and charm of those films. The script leans too heavily on formula. Every character makes a dramatic entrance, but with no real arc to follow. The effect is dulled by a middling soundtrack. Ranjin Raj’s four songs appear abruptly, breaking the rhythm, while the background score leans more on loudness than feeling. Arjun Ashokan does well as Appu. He gets the body language right and brings some honesty to the role, though his emotional scenes sometimes go overboard. Malavika Manoj is convincing as Bhama and has a quiet grace, but the script gives her little beyond a few comic touches. Gokul Suresh as Mahesh keeps things grounded, channeling the early restraint of his father’s performances. Shravan Mukesh, veteran actor Mukesh's son, as Bhadran lacks menace with subpar dialogue delivery. Malikappuram duo child actors Devanandha and Sreepath Yan, as Appu’s sister Alli and Bhama’s brother Vavakuttan, bring some fun energy, though a scene hinting at a childhood crush between them is awkward and unnecessary.

And then there is Sumathi, the ghost. After all the tension the film builds around her, it is baffling how little attention she gets as the story moves forward. She is pushed aside just when the lore around her should grow deeper. By the time the film comes up with its convenient final twist that ties every plot thread together, it feels more like an obligation than a payoff. There are still glimpses of what could have been. The forest setting has an evocative atmosphere. There are flickers of '90s charm, but unlike Minnal Murali, which fully embraced its period setting, Sumathi Valavu never taps into that nostalgia in a meaningful way. The writing and filmmaking feel more outdated than the period itself. In trying to recreate the decade, the makers have forgotten to update the way stories are told. If only the makers had trusted the ghost more than the formula.