In the recent years, Ghost stories have become a time-worn premise in Kollywood. In fact, the over exploitation of this genre has made even the decent efforts of few writers and directors disappear into thin air. On the contrary, there are few filmmakers, who are bounded more to the technical aspects than escalating the actual thrills and chills that a horror or supernatural genre deserves.

The recent release of Aishwarya Rajesh starrer ‘Boomika’ streaming on Netflix belongs to this genre. Few years back, Karthik Subbaraj’s Mercury revolved around a similar concept involving ghosts and environmental issues. In fact, it was reported to be based on a poisonous gas leak from an industrial factory in Kodaikanal during the late 80s that craved many lives. Loosely based on a similar premise, the concept of Boomika too revolves around the same plot

Well, don’t get disappointed, if the abovementioned statement turns out to be a spoiler. As cited earlier, ghost stories no more scare the crowds as they have become the spoof materials in Tamil cinema. But still! The final moments in the movie, where the importance of Nature and how a soul that is connected to it will go to any extent of saving it has been depicted neatly. These days, producers’ intentions are very clear. Appoint a director, who has a script revolving around single or a couple of locations, especially in hill station, where the budget can be controlled. Check out the heroines, who are desperately looking out for female-centric movies. It’s an advantage, if they have a market in Tamil and other regional industries. What’s next? Sign up an OTT and Satellite rights deal, where a major portion of investment is covered. Then who cares? Let the film get wiped out from the theatres after an opening weekend. More than all, few producers, even count the number of seats in multiplexes and make sure that it gets appropriate show timings that naturally gets a houseful show even if a Z-graded movie is screened. Naturally, producers fill up their sacs and walk back to repeat the cycle. But guess what? The art of cinema gets polluted, where audience, who come to theatres, expecting something unique and worthy for the ticket prices. Now don’t come up with the conclusion this movie is released on OTT platform as we all know why the movies aren’t releasing in theatres.

Humble request to producers! Please give a break to the horror and supernatural tales and don’t exploit them for the sake of pure commercial gain. Make some good stories that amuse and engross audiences, which in turn, will endow you with profits.