Given that we have been seeing a spate of horror comedies for the past few years, it is a pleasant surprise that Devi(L) feels unique. As he did with Saivam, Vijay gives us a story that is quite simple and at the same time empathetic. In fact, on the surface level, its central conceit shares a similarity with the recent Naayagi —a girl who had aspirations of becoming an actress making her dreams come true as a ghost. But the film also exposes the later for the tedious farce it was.
Here, Krishna (Prabhdheva), who lives in Mumbai and dreams of marrying a city girl, is forced by his family into a marriage with Devi (Tamannaah), a girl in his village. He brings her to Mumbai and moves into a new house, which is actually haunted by Ruby, the ghost of a small-time model who wanted to be an actress. When Ruby takes over Devi to achieve her dream, Krishna, enters into a contract with the ghost to protect his wife.
For a film that has a ghost, Devi(L) is completely devoid of scares. Instead, Vijay plays up the weirdness in a man finding that his wife has literally turned into a ghost. And he gives us one superbly realised scene filled with visual pyrotechnics that shows how Krishna has no escape from his situation. He also avoids giving us a flashback for the ghost and instead manages to effectively convince us of Ruby’s aspiration through a few lines of dialogue alone. And despite dealing with a triangular romance, he doesn’t make the third person — the film star Raj Khanna (Sonu Sood), who develops a soft corner for his heroine — a jerk.
( 3 / 5 )