Zombie Review - A boring attempt at a zom-com, with none of the jokes touching the funny bone!

Akash

Zombie the film, has numerous characters played by internet faces Gopi, Sudhakar, Yashika, Bijili Ramesh, Anbu, Karthik TMK, Manobala and Yogi Babu himself. The entire story is about how these characters stuck in a resort full of zombies, try to escape. Basically, there is barely any content that moves the film forward and the team has banked on the one-liners and attempts at humour by these Youtube actors. But what we get as a product is barely convincing.

Though there are so many characters, the characterizations of each of them are very weak and do not leave any sort of impact. This shallow approach could have been avoided. Also, most of the Youtube actors look amateur and do not hold the serious scenes together. Their one-liners do not work at all and this probably is the best example of how Youtube video content differs from what grips the audience in a cinema hall. Only Yogi Babu looks comfortable in his role and he barely has importance in the script.

The film starts off with a scene where a few hens are infected by a virus and how this causes people eating the chicken to become man-eating, dangerous zombies. This though, is very abstract and there is no further explanation or solution to this problem. In fact, the only people that suffer from this zombie issue happens to be the people in the resort and this might seem very vague for those watching. The outside world, the press and media or even people from a neighbouring village not being informed of such a dangerous zombie attack, is inexcusably illogical.

Another issue in the film is the use of cheap humour and glamour. How long are we going to keep watching body shaming, cheap ineffective jokes, unwanted item songs, digs at how people look and humour that shows women in poor light? There is no humour that is constructive at all and hence no genuine laughs in theatres. A lot of BGM’s of hit Tamil films are used here and there and this could come across as irritating after a certain point. The saving grace could be Yogi Babu’s couple of scenes with his henchmen.

Technically too, Zombie has nothing to brag about. The only tolerable factor is Premgi Amaren’s background score that shows promise here and there. The item song is unnecessary and not catchy. Even though the run-time is just about 2 hours, the film seems very long and we as audiences might seem stuck in the theatre, just like how the characters in the movie seem monotonously stuck in the resort.

On the whole, Bhuvan’s Zombie neither thrills, nor makes you laugh. The zombie driven, fear factor layer is completely missing and we do not know if we should laugh or get scared for the scenes as, none of it demands for neither. The entire idea of a zom-com seems to be misunderstood and the purpose of the film seems unfulfilled. Most part of the film is stuck in that resort and there is no progress in the plot that would keep you hooked to the screen. A forgettable experience for those expecting entertainment or comedy!

Bottomline: A tiresome watch with underwhelming performances and lethargic writing!

Rating: 0.5/5