Director Tarun Teja’s Asvins begins with a legend of the twin gods from the Rig Veda, who possess the power to heal and even resurrect the dead. This leads one to think that Asvins is a mythological horror film. But it does not take long to figure out that it is a fusion of both mythological and psychological horror, especially when Tarun Tej takes you through the landscape of the huge haunted mansion in the film, with a garden that resembles the hedge maze from the iconic Hollywood classic The Shining.
Disappointingly though, the narrative of Asvins follows one of the most boring, overdone tropes – that of a group of friends visiting a haunted place, leading to trouble. Arjun (Vasanth Ravi), his wife (Saraswathi Menon), and three other friends, who create YouTube videos, particularly about haunted houses, decide to do a show about one such house in London. This house is located on an island, and the path to it becomes flooded with water as the sun sets.
Asvins does look like the plot was deliberately set in London because the filmmaker wanted to use the aesthetics of a Hollywood film. While the scenario is unimaginative, Tarun compensates for it with his storytelling in the first half. The sound effects, background score, and cinematography take you to a scary world. The way the camera plays with light and shadows, and seamlessly makes the transition between two realms–the actual and the unreal–is phenomenal. The scenes of water submerging a pole on the island inch by inch foretell how Arjun and his gang will get deep into trouble and that they may never come out. Those bits are extremely well-written and executed on screen, driving home the eeriness of the plot.
There are jump scares too, which become tiresome after a point. Whenever the film is not trying to spook you with jump scares, it employs the trope of having people smile creepily, again, inspired by The Shining.
In contrast to the gripping first half, the second half proceeds in a lackluster manner. Tarun fails at tying together the mythological and psychological elements into a coherent narrative, though he tries hard to explore the duality of the human mind through these two ideas. On paper, the plot may have looked good, but it does not translate well on screen.
To some extent, the confusion about what is reality and what is illusion works, but leaves a lot to be desired. The soundscape, art direction, and color grading carry the entire weight of the second half, which deeply lacks cohesion in terms of storytelling.
Some scenes are downright contradictory. For instance: In the beginning, when the protagonists are documenting the house, one complains of hearing noises of someone running around. His brother dismisses it entirely. But later, while recording video footage of the house, he tells the audience that many police personnel and others have heard such noises when they previously visited the building.
Vasanth Ravi delivers a compelling performance as Arun, a vulnerable man who wants to rescue all his friends from the mansion. Actor Vimala Raman gives a convincing and memorable performance though she only has limited screen time.
Overall, while the story of Asvins may leave a lot to be desired, director Tarun Teja, who has co-written the screenplay with Yogesh Sudhakara Mallineni, surely shows a lot of promise as a filmmaker.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the producers or any other members of its cast and crew.