Pisasu

Bad things happen to good people is the lesson of Chennai noir. It doesn’t matter if it looks like sinister satire, political thriller or horror film. This genre cinema culture is engaged with off and on all over India, albeit rarely with the intensity and fervor found in the United States or Italy. That said: Pisasu is not exactly your ordinary fright fest, even if it works splendidly like that.

Pisasu is more a social realist film going at some point early on into supernatural overdrive. The premise is simple: a guy called Siddharth stumbles upon an accident, tries to save the victim, but doesn’t make it to the hospital in time. Some films would then go into psychological mode and show him spiritually disintegrating – Mysskin sends the grief-stricken, angry ghost of the dead teenager out to haunt Siddharth. Let’s just say: the end of this positively nerve-wrecking gem is very surprising!

Also see Wage War.