ALYAD PALYAD

Every year, an island village in Konkan stays away from it for three days because the villagers believe that the spirits loiter around in the village during those three days and the life of whoever stays back is in danger. Obviously, there is a backstory to this belief of the villagers, but we don’t know if the villagers know what the audience knows. Starting on a promising note by drawing similarities between god and ghosts because no man has seen it, Alyad Palyad loses its steam sooner than expected by turning into a plain horror comedy with nothing novel to offer us.

Alyad Palyad has every element we have previously seen in the films in this genre. There is a village, overenthusiastic youngsters, possessed people, aghori/tantric, and at least a century-old uninteresting story that leads to fear in the village. It’s not like nothing exciting or interesting can’t be generated with these elements. Alyad Palyad refreshingly and momentarily keeps women at the forefront in the male-dominated world, society and films, but by the time we can enjoy its effect, it loses its novelty. It’s a sad sign of the creators struggling to offer something new.

Alyad Palyad’s screenplay is unforgivably familiar, but thankfully, director and co-writer Pritam S.K. Patil doesn’t make it feel so to the best of his ability. If there is any relief in the writing, it is the dialogue. Before we assume or misunderstand them to be the film’s highlight, let me break the bubble for you. Almost every line in the movie sounds like a silly sketch seen in comedy shows like Maharashtra Chi Hasya Jatra and Chala Hawa Yeu Dya. The only solace here is that they immensely contribute to the humour. They effortlessly made me crack up at some unexpected situations, and I was pleasantly surprised by that.

After saying this, it is natural to assume that performances must have contributed to the humour of Alyad Palyad, but sadly, that’s not the case. With Gaurav More pretty much headlining the film, the performances also looked and felt like the ones we see in those comedy shows on TV. I detest this approach to the films as it refrains the movie from coming across as any different in any manner. I would rather watch them on those TV shows only. No effort seems to have been taken in designing the characters of Makrand Deshpande and Sandeep Pathak. We see them doing what they do in this movie because they are good at such parts. The rest of the cast members barely register.

I couldn’t find anything in Alyad Palyad I thought I wanted to remember. The film had such an amazing scope to look gorgeous with the rural locations and the night shoots. I never got a sense of belonging to the place/village while watching the film. Every frame looked gimmicky and tacky. The VFX/CGI, if not bad, wasn’t anything worth praising. The lighting was unbearably flat. It gave the vibe of bad horror films that are usually watched only to be disliked or mocked. The aesthetics weren’t appealing at all.

Music and background score are usually the backbone of horror films, but that wasn’t the case with Alyad Palyad. I shockingly didn’t notice the background score even for a second. It’s sad to see it sound so forgettable in a horror comedy. The compositions sounded dreadfully disappointing because the first song (item number) looks out of place for the situation, forced and gimmicky. It felt like Pritam S.K. Patil thought the film would feel incomplete without that second song with in-your-face horror flavour, which is why it was added to the film. I did not see it serving any purpose to the film or making any difference to our viewing experience.

The overall viewing experience of Alyad Palyad has been inconsistent and mildly attentive but never interesting or exciting. I felt like Pritam S.K. Patil’s fascination for the genre overpowered the entire moviemaking process, which is why the core idea never felt worth even paying attention to in the first place. I can’t help but say this – the recently released Munjya showed how differently the same old tale in the same genre can be made and also thoroughly enjoyed. Alyad Palyad remains to be that inconsequential addition to the endless list of bland horror comedies.