Director Dharani Dharan’s debut movie Burma had some well executed dark comedy moments. In his second film Jackson Durai, the director has tried to use his comic strength along with spooky elements to score a commercial hit.
Sathya( Sibiraj) is a sub inspector in crime branch with zero success rate. When people in a village called Ayanpuram start experiencing paranormal activities, higher officials choose Sathya as the investigative officer. Interestingly before the Ayanpuram assignment, Sathya was on a medical leave to find the right life partner.As Sathya investigates about the haunted bungalow in Ayanpuram, he falls in love with the village President’s( Shanmugha Sundaram) daughter Viji( Bindhu Madhavi) . Apparently, a competition arises between Sathya and the President’s relative( Karunakaran) in marrying Viji. In order to arrive at a conclusion, the President challenges both Sathya and his relative to stay in the haunted bungalow for seven days. Who comes out as the winner?
Dharani Dharan’s ideology of mixing fantasy, horror and spoof is laudable but he hasn’t got the right screenplay. Although all the actors are capable of pulling off the characters given to them, the aimless screenplay doesn’t offer big entertainment.
Nevertheless, there are genuine funny punch lines from Yogi Babu. Karunakaran and ‘Mottai’ Rajendran also impress us with their comic act however, the back story wasn’t effective. Though Sathyaraj looks powerful in flashback portions, he fails to scare us as a ghost.
Sibiraj looks convincing as a young cop and has got the comic timing but the actor has to improve his body language and expressions to carry heavier roles. Technically, Yuvraj’s cinematography is a big plus for Jackson Durai while Vivek Harshan’s cuts help the film for horror gimmicks.
Overall, Jackson Durai is a decent horror comedy and watchable for the Sibiraj and Sathyaraj combo
