Surface-level storytelling helped by next-level jokes

Usually seen as an escape and haven from real-world problems, the choice to turn theatres into a site of torment is a compelling idea that DD Next Level boldly flirts with.

- AKSHAY KUMAR

Usually seen as an escape and haven from real-world problems, the choice to turn theatres into a site of torment is a compelling idea that DD Next Level boldly flirts with. The latest Santhanam film operates on the premise that real-life people are trapped in a movie as the characters, and that film within the film has multiple references to popular films. Sounds convoluted? Well, they manage to iron most of them out in this neatly packaged horror comedy that tries. Interestingly, Santhanam's horror comedy works for its snides at the horror tropes throughout the film. Initially, when YouTube film critics Krishnamoorthy AKA Kissa 47 (Santhanam) and Veen Pechu Babu (Rajendran) enter a new dimension, they anticipate the challenges thrown at them by recollecting their own memories of those references made throughout this film. This is the case because they don't play the characters in the film that they are trapped in. It is both fun and cathartic to see Santhanam and Rajendran play our proxies in mocking such done-to-death tropes. Thankfully, this goes on till the very end.