Sabdham

Instead, all we get is a discordant cacophony of several story elements forcefully made to fit together. Sabdham’s central issue can be described through a pivotal scene that arrives towards the middle. In one of the biggest stretches of exposition, Aadhi’s character explains every single gadget he uses as a paranormal investigator, in painstaking detail. There is one that records thermal signature, one that captures frequencies beyond the human range, and a contraption that beeps whenever a ghost is nearby. He does end up using them at some point, and we do understand how they work but it matters next to nothing when all of the exposition culminates into a scene where all the equipment goes haywire, recording extraordinary levels of paranormal presence, while barely anything registers on an emotional level for the audience.

The first half of the film is narrated as a crime thriller where the focus is on how the murders took place and how it all culminates into the possession and action of the ghostly forces. The interval block, which is the best sequence in the film, is carried out superbly, with some never seen before ideas and is executed with sound, visuals and camera work on point. In the second half, the film moves deeper into its storyline and we get to know the character of Simran and how she is embedded into the proceedings. The film lands some emotional instances here and though we are not entirely invested in it, the narrative is pretty neat. Except for the climax which is all over the place, Sabdham is a neat film that is technically solid in every department.

Sabdham is a technically strong film which sets a great premise for a horror film. If you go past some cliches, you begin to feel the film is getting somewhere. But falls into the pit of stereotypes with no extraordinary choices, and becomes a regular template-adhering story.

Even though the film has a number of interesting ideas, they do not rise up in coherence to create a pleasing symphony. Instead, all we get is a discordant cacophony of several story elements forcefully made to fit together. Sabdham’s central issue can be described through a pivotal scene that arrives towards the middle. In one of the biggest stretches of exposition, Aadhi’s character explains every single gadget he uses as a paranormal investigator, in painstaking detail. There is one that records thermal signature, one that captures frequencies beyond the human range, and a contraption that beeps whenever a ghost is nearby.