Asvins Movie Review: An effective folklore-horror elevated by brilliant sound design 

With Asvins, debut director Tarun Teja adds folklore and chimerical elements to the horror genre giving it a rewarding twist. The union of mythology and ghastliness in the film especially leaves our hearts rightfully thumping for most parts of the runtime. Asvins revolves around a motley group of YouTubers who visit London to shoot a black tourism video. They enter a haunted house to make a documentary, but they become victims of a 1000-year-old curse revolving around the Hindu deities Asvini Kumars. The rest of the film explores how they break themselves free from the complicated curse.

Director: Tarun Teja
Cast: Vasanth Ravi, Saraswathi Menon, Vimala Raman, Muralidharan

Asvins is split into five different chapters, just like a horror novel. The prologue of the film tells the story of the curse and introduces us to the non-linear narrative. The cinematography and impeccable sound design puts us in the middle of all the action and giving us first-hand experience of the horror.

The writing of Tarun Teja gets outstandingly elevated by Vijay Siddarth, whose background score and sound design are the soul of Asvins. Being a sound engineering graduate himself Tarun Teja's visuals go hand in hand with the meticulously designed background score.

The adrenaline rush in Asvins is majorly delivered by the sound, which hits us even before the eerie visuals. A woman singing a single musical note in a high pitch and sometimes, a glass breaking in close vicinity or a husky chanting of necromantic spells afar every single sound is crystal clear and distinct. For obvious reasons, the film is best experienced on a screen with high-quality surround sound.

A minor setback in the film would possibly be the story. Although there are multiple fables stitched into the film, the attempt to milk out the entire potential from folklore and mythology feels wanting. While it is not a major grouse, Asvins at its core feels like just another good vs evil story with great attention to detail.

With themes of duality and the Asvini horses being recurrent ingredients, the makers could have gone in deeper exploring the history of the legend. For example, the protagonist Arjun is the one who saves the day. But, there isn't enough backing to explain why he is the chosen one. These unsaid and unexplored elements might leave a section of the audience perplexed as they already have a nonlinear narrative to follow. 

Perfect casting is one of the biggest plus points of Asvins. Vasanth Ravi’s previous films Taramani and Rocky, which featured him as an intense performer, seem to have prepped him for this rather demanding role. His countenance is perfectly apt for spectral and monstrous sequences. Apart from the effective music, it is Vasanth who bears the film on his shoulders, especially in the latter half. His tall build, his excessively large, expressive eyes, and his blood-curdling screams perfectly complement the ominous world of Asvins. Vimala Raman, on the other hand, leaves a terrific mark with her brief yet significant portion.

Asvins in many ways is a psychological horror and the film also leaves an important message about the mind. In one of the last frames of the film, a character says, “Everyone is as strong as their strongest mind.” I saw that as a disclaimer by the makers declaring that their film isn't for the faint-hearted, well, they clearly aren't wrong!