Aadhi Pinisetty is known for his impactful and thought-provoking entertainers and he is now starring in a horror thriller Sabdham. The film directed by Arivazhagan Venkatachalam is releasing on 28 Feb 2025. Let us see how Aadhi managed to scare movie lovers on the big screen.
Sabdham is all about a ghost investigator who communicates with the deadsouls and is journey when he comes into contact with a soul which creates havoc scaring all. Following the mysterious suicides of students at Holy Angels Medical College in Kerala, the management takes the services of Vyuma Vaidyalingam (Aadhi Pinisetty), a Paranormal Investigator in Mumbai.
As Vuyma starts his investigation, he experiences weird happenings and unearths startling secrets and the dark happenings involving the college. Where this leads to and how College founder Daniel (Rajiv Menon), Ex Principal Diana (Simran ), Nancy Daniel (Laila), Doctor Avanthika (Lakshmi Menon), Deepak (Vivek Prasanna) and Antony (MS.Bhaskar) are connected form the interesting twists and turns.
Aadhi Pinisetty brought intensity in his role of a paranormal investigator with his performance. His body language, physique, mannerisms, emotions and expressions according to the situation added value to the narration. He carried the film on his shoulders with his dialogue delivery and intense screen presence.
Lakshmi Menon is good in the role of the doctor. She came up with decent expressions and emotions and delivered dialogues with ease. Simran played an important role in the film which drove the story forward but she looked aged on the screen. She emoted well as per her role. Laila also played a key role but she looked odd with her physique and as she played the anglo Indian woman, she tried to bring some uniqueness but failed.
Redin Kingsley with his expressions and dialogues tried to add some humour in the horror story. Rajiv Menon role did not get the right kind of elevation in the climax and it brought down the intensity levels.
Sabdham story penned by Arivazhagan Venkatachalam is a horror thriller. Arivazhagan came up with an interesting premise and he tried to highlight how sound can be used in constructive and destructive purposes. This concept generates interest and he starts the narration in an interesting manner.
From then on, the narration picks up pace and the screenplay is racy keeping viewers glued to the screen taking them into the story. The screenplay goes on smoothly and Arivazhagan should be complimented for not using confusing jargons to complicate things.
The first half ends with a good interval twist setting the stage for the second half. The intensity levels comedown and screenplay slows down once the flashback and emotional scenes are highlighted. From then on everything becomes predictable once the reason behind the weird happenings are known.
It becomes just a matter of time for the pre climax and climax to happen and windup things predictably. A little fine-tuning of the script and including few more twists and turns in the second half, would have helped Sabdham make more powerful impact on the screen. Dialogues are good and inquisitive.
There are very few songs in the film. Thaman however elevated the scenes with his background music. His background score made a thumping impact on the big screen. However at times it turned out to be loud.
The Cinematography of Arun Bathmanaban carried the intense and weird experience to the viewers with the camera angles. The VFX work is good and it gave impressive experience to the viewers. Sabu Joseph's editing is good in the first half and could have been better in the second half. Production values are good.
Altogether, Sabdham turns out to be an interesting horror thriller. Director Arivazhagan came up with a good premise and got optimum impact from the cast and crew. Aadhi Pinisetty did full justice to his role and to did the technical team for most of the part. Little fine-tuning of the script in the second half would have added more zing to the final outcome. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 2.5 rating for Sabdham.