‘Boomika’ Movie Review – Too Many Themes Spoil The Plot

There is an annoying character in the 2021 Horror/Thriller Indian movie ‘Boomika’ that I really hoped died of dog bites. Only because she is bitten by mad mutts in the film. That’s perhaps the strongest emotions most viewers would feel while watching the movie.

This Tamil film starts with a random fatal road accident, the victim then doesn’t make an appearance till the end of the movie, gnawing at the back of the viewers mind is the question – why in hell did they start with that sequence? So after the accident, things shift to a hill town and for a few seconds you assume it’s going to be a road trip kind of film. A guy called Vidhu (Gowtham) is driving his wife, kid, sister and a friend to a British era Bungalow, on a large property where he is working on a new real-estate project.

Okay, you assume maybe it’s a haunted house film – British era building in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forests. Netx, Vidhu’s friend who is an architect, starts texting an old friends, who they learn is already dead. So who was texting her? Maybe it’s not a haunted house, but just an elaborate trick by somebody. Or well – ghosts text. But they are ghosts, they’ve probably started using dating apps too. Beware the next time you swipe right, dear reader.

Let’s talk about the cast, I do not even want to look up the name of the actors, because it’s effort, and any more effort on this film might is not worth it, especially since nobody stands out in the cast. Only the actor who plays the titular role of ‘Boomika’ was decent. So who on earth is Boomika anyway? (Did you catch the pun? Boomika is an Indian word for earth). Well, Boomika’s identity and fate is the real mystery of the story, but by the time the makers come to that bit, at least one hour of the movie is already over, and the first half was just too random, barely fitting in with the tone of the rest of the story.

And there is that annoying character we mentioned earlier, Vidhu’s younger sister, who is a scared out of her wits in the house and keeps screaming with only half-her energy. Her half-hearted screams are not in tandem with her fear, nor are her subsequent actions. Her role adds no value to the script, except for irritating the viewer to death. The rest of the cast is only a tad bit bearable, but most of the time, their behavior is quite questionable. For example, there’s Vidhu, who claims he doesn’t believe in supernatural non-sense, but is always whisper-talking with those around him.

Let’s talk about the sudden change in tone of the film, from ‘who knows what’s happening’, in a flash the story becomes a tale of saving mother nature and how the entire planet is being plundered by humans. WTF? Curiously, there is an interesting little story in there, but it’s disjointed, forced and out of place. The writers do write to piece everything together at the end, but the explanations aren’t worth all the confusing mess that precedes it.

It’s a 4/10 from me. I don’t know if that’s harsh. Well… IDGAF.