‘Choo Mantar’ movie review: More twists than scares in Sharan’s horror drama

Sharan in ‘Choo Mantar’
| Photo Credit: Anand Audio/YouTube

At one point in Choo Mantar, we see the chilling hide-and-clap scene from The Conjuring being played on a tablet. It’s a terrific scene that relies more on concept than sound. Karvaa Navaneeth’s latest horror drama needed such out-of-the-box thinking to achieve its full potential.

Choo Mantar has all the tropes of a typical horror film. You have a haunted mansion built during the British era. Expectedly, there is a backstory to it. Unusual happenings inside the bungalow trap a family of four, and a paranormal activist has to crack the mystery.

Sharan plays the ghostbuster who decides to fix the dreaded reputation of the mansion. Called Dynamo, he is hailed as one of the best paranormal researchers in the country. His subordinates are essayed by Chikkanna, Aditi Prabhudeva, and Kiran Chandrashekhar.

Choo Mantar begins as a horror comedy, with Chikkanna and Sharan delivering witty lines, but the humour soon loses its sheen because the dialogues turn from cheeky to silly. The film takes quite a while to get going, with the first big twist arriving at the interval point. The surprise, though, is worth the wait, and Navaneeth sets the film up nicely, only to deliver an underwhelming second half.

The film lacks solid jump scares. Showing the ghosts as hideous monsters, Choo Mantar takes the old-school route to scare people. Despite the valiant performances of Meghana Gaonkar and Aditi Prabhudeva, the movie doesn’t grip you with fear.

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It’s confusing why director Navaneeth treats the film as a thriller. Every plot point in the story leads to a surprise. While such twists aren’t bad, Choo Mantar fails to do the basic duty of a horror film: to scare the audience. The movie is well mounted with the cinematography and the background score doing justice to the backdrop. The rousing climax is whistle-worthy but feels force-fitted to produce an impact similar to what we experienced in Kantara (2022).

I enjoyed the final surprise, a nod to a yesteryear horror hit involving a superstar. Sharan’s character, in fact, has a lot of similarities to that famous character from the popular movie. Though gimmicky, the sequel idea feels quite juicy to think of, especially if you consider the probability of a horror universe in Kannada cinema. In case there is a continuation, the franchise must have a perfect balance of suspense and horrifying drama.

Choo Mantar is currently running in cricket