I saw this film at the Imagine (SF/horror/fantasy) film festival 2013 in Amsterdam. A lot of impossible things happen in this film, but the context is clear from the opening scene on, where we hear a persistent daughter asking her father to tell a bedtime story. It sets the tone for what follows: a fairy tale, with good and bad people, the good ones win in the end, the bad ones await what is coming for them, etcetera. The voices of father and daughter re-appear in the ending scene, to remind us that this was indeed a "Once upon a time" story from the start. Maybe the heads up is not really redundant, while all sort of things happen during the 2 hours in between.
Basically, we see a proverbial David and Goliath story: a David-like (Nani) figure is killed by the Goliath-figure (Sudeep), all in the struggle for a woman (Bindu). But Nani reincarnates as a fly and makes it his business to haunt and annoy Sudeep at first, later on followed by real attempts to kill him. It is beautifully visualized, with a lot of animation where a fly is neatly integrated in the picture.
In the first half hour (before the fly makes its/his appearance) I had the impression that the main characters were portrayed a bit over the top. Especially the bad guy (Sudeep), who usually gets any beautiful woman he wants, has to let go of Bindu who has set her eyes on neighbor Nani. Nani follows Bindu everywhere, but she waits 2 years before responding to his courting.
When collecting funds for a school support project, Bindu is received by Sudeep who writes a cheque on first sight in favor of her charity, but also insists she has lunch with him. This is where the trouble starts. Bindu is apparently distracted when seeing Nani nearby during lunch, being an unusual experience for Sudeep. He "solves" this problem by killing Nani in a dark alley. Nani reincarnates as a fly, at which moment the animation kicks in.
That is also the moment that the fairy tale atmosphere starts. Nani is determined to get his revenge. We see many impossible things happen during his actions. I'm not sure about some of them being physically possible for a fly, like carrying a needle many times its own weight. And the ominous writing on Sundeep's windshield looks also improbable. But who cares, since it fits the story line AND we can expect this in a fairy tale where the good win and the bad loose in the end, by whatever means available at the time.
All in all, in spite of the simplistic story that one could have derived from the synopsis, the plot is worked out beautifully. The subsequent attempts of the fly to deal with Sundeep, are various and creative. At first, the fly works alone. Later on he finds a way to communicate with Bindu, and they start working together. But even then, many killing attempts fail. As a result, we get many opportunities to admire how the animation and the "real" characters work together. We also become aware that a fly lives a very dangerous life, feeling very vulnerable and defenseless against people who think flies are a menace to mankind. However, this special fly survives it all, of course inherent to a fairy tale that is designed to let the good ones win. The festival visitors (all 18+) gave this film an 8.07 score for the audience award, demonstrating that this movie is also interesting enough for adults.
