Katteri Movie Review: Randomness both saves and destroys this horror comedy 

In an ideal world, appreciating films based on the pre and post-interval halves wouldn't be the right way to go. But in the case of director Deekay's Katteri it would be quite a task to see the two halves of the film as a single entity. Even though randomness runs commonly throughout the film, the umpteen moments that evoke laughter in the first half go missing without a trace in the latter. 

Director: Deekay 

Cast: Vaibhav, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Sonam Bajwa, Aathmika

Let me make myself clear Katteri's humour isn't for everyone. The film's attempt at making us laugh is filled with a fair amount of political incorrectness and toilet humour, but it succeeds in delivering effective gags! If you are someone who is familiar with the director's previous works is there a point in expecting logic, earnestness, and political correctness? 

Katteri too sticks to Deekay's template of pitting a half-witted gang against a ghost, and this is held together by a series of unending gags and irreverent humour. The film has a rather interesting assortment of ghosts starting from the one which is summoned by unwashed hands to the one that is fascinated by rhymes. Even Vaibhav himself exclaims,"Indha oorla dhaan da ivlo variety variety ah pei iruku!" The characters do a lot of running around jumping from one gag to another and we hardly remember their names, but we don't crib about it, as the laughs keep coming in. But, sadly, the randomness which works majorly in favour of the film turns absurd midway and there is no point of redemption from then. 

Though the second half had great potential for comedy in the form of the ghost that plays 'find the lie' with Vaibhav's gang and gets excited by ambiguous replies, it gets wasted as the film begins to take itself seriously all of a sudden and the back story of the ghost is excessively dark for a horror comedy. Whatever is built in the first half gets crushed into pieces in the latter half thanks to the excessive loose ends and rushed climax. 

Katteri has a beginning akin to a fun horror house ride. It has ghosts jumping out of nowhere delivering the thrills and elements thrown in to kindle hysteric laughter but once it takes the wrong tunnel, it leaves us in the dark. We sit patiently waiting for a bright moment to come our way. However, what hits us announced is the end which leaves us terribly annoyed.