Maya

Ashwin Saravanan's 2015 Tamil film runs on two lines. A comics artist realises that the story he is drawing, about a woman who died in an asylum in the forest, may be real; at the same time a woman who wants to act takes a bet to watch a horror film alone at night in a cinema. The structure joins the two lines late and that connection is what carries the tension. The narrative proceeds in flashback and which time we are in is at times unclear. Nayanthara leads and the film was noted as a change of genre in her career. The horror rests on sound design and use of space with few jump scares. It was made on a low budget and succeeded at the box office. Who it's for: those who like Tamil horror and layered narratives. Who it's not for: viewers troubled by asylums used as a horror device; the film rests on that convention.