'Evil Eye' review: Sarita Choudhury shines as meddling mom anxious about her daughter

Directed by Elan Dassani and Rajeev Dassani, Evil Eye stars Sarita Choudhury, Sunita Mani and Omar Maskati in the lead roles. The film is available to watch on Amazon Prime.

Plot of Evil Eye

Evil Eye is a story about a mother, Usha, who is paranoid about her daughter’s well being all the time as she believes that her daughter, Pallavi is cursed. From the starting of the film, it is clear that Usha is a very superstitious woman and does everything to protect her daughter from the ‘Evil Eye’ which also means a devil’s eye, which can suck the happiness from a person’s life and fill it with misery. As the plot unfolds, Usha is desperate to find a suitable match for Pallavi as she wants her to settle before she turns 29, or else she would never get married (so Usha is told by an astronomer).

One day, Pallavi tells her mother that she has met someone (Sandeep) and that she is falling in love with him. However, Usha senses something off about Sandeep and tries to convince Pallavi to stay away from him. Pallavi sets up Usha’s meeting with Sandeep in an attempt to make Usha like him.

But everything falls south after Usha realises who Sandeep really is. It is revealed that Sandeep is a reincarnated form of Usha’s past lover, with whom she had broken all ties once Pallavi was born. He has come back into their lives to torment Usha and make her life miserable once again. Will Usha be able to protect her family from the ‘Evil eye’ of Sandeep?

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What Works?

The acting of Sarita Choudhury is a delight to the eyes as she portrays a meddling mother who is anxious about her daughter’s well being becoming a fierce lady in the climax scene who takes charge. The transformation is commendable. The art direction and the production designs were good and helped in conveying the mood of the characters. The sound backdrop is also good and maintains the suspense of the film.

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What does not work?

The climax scene is not as gripping as the whole buildup of Usha’s character and the story until the point she finds out the ‘why and how’ is Sandeep not a suitable match for her daughter. While the story seemed intriguing, at various points it felt like the film was losing its path. There are certain subplots, such as Usha being superstitious because she feels her daughter is cursed, Usha having flashbacks from her traumatic past which make her anxious and overprotective about her daughter’s future, and then there is an element where Sandeep is a reincarnated form of her past lover. While all of these plot points make sense individually, in the film it seems confusing and the plot seems directionless with too many subplots to follow.

Final thoughts

The film is an interesting story about a curse from the past reincarnating in the present to torment a family and is able to maintain the suspense about how will they survive it. However, do not go in expecting horror or any sort of paranormal elements for which Blumhouse Productions is known. The film can be watched once.

Rating: 3/5

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Image credits: Screengrab from trailer