Black

It's 1964, Manohar is helping his friends elope and marry despite being in love with the girl. He takes them to his holiday home and soon, finds them both dead, shocking the bejesus out of him. Years later, Vasanth and Aranya are a couple who are happily married but small strain is showing in their relationship. To make up for it, they plan a vacation and land up in the holiday home. It's the night of red moon and both start feeling strong deja vu. They are further shocked to see similar houses which are occupied despite being not sold. What do they uncover on that night while being stuck in a loop? How does Aranya go missing, turning Vasanth into a suspect? Will Vasanth be able to prove his innocence and find his wife? The film tries to answer them all.

I have not seen the film that acts as inspiration to this one. It is commendable to see a film outside the usual Tamil cinema and 2024 has been the year where this has been tried a few times especially in Kannada films. The story deals with parallel universes theory and the director takes his sweet time to get to the point i.e. Good 40 odd minutes which would be my major complaint. Once the couple settle in the house, it gets interesting and the director is able to keep the mystery alive for the next one hour. The explanation does get oversimplified in the third act and I wish the director had explored the 1964 plot a bit more. The final twist is decent and again, it could have been executed a lot better if the climax had maintained the tense moment. I would still recommend Black to all, just for the attempt.