Connect (2022) [Hindi]

The announcement of a nation-wide lock-down due to the spread of COVID-19 pandemic disrupts the peace of a family. What follows is a series of bizarre events as one of them tries to invite the spirit of a family member. Connect is a 2022 Tamil-language horror thriller film directed by Ashwin Saravanan and produced by Vignesh Shivan under Rowdy Pictures, starring Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, and Vinay Rai. Connect marks the second collaboration of Saravanan with Nayanthara, after Maya. The background score was composed by Prithvi Chandrasekhar. The film also marks Kher’s return to Tamil cinema after a long gap.

In a conversation with Silverscreen India, Ashwin Saravanan stated that: “I was feeling stressed and anxious; the times were very uncertain. There was hopelessness and uncertainty about whether we would ever recover from it. I wanted to portray those emotions in a film and I realised the only genre that would work for my purpose was horror. Anxiety, dread, sense of hopelessness and fear – the horror genre lends itself to these emotions beautifully. We chose the title Connect because, during the lockdown, all of us found it hard to connect with those around us. I want to capture that in the film. What happens when we are unable to connect, is one of layers that we have explored.”[4] The story is written by Ashwin in association with his wife Kaavya Ramkumar, marking their second collaboration after Game Over.

Filming Logesh Balachandran of The Times of India gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote “Nayanthara, once again, delivers a convincing act as the mother of a depressed teenager. The technical aspects of the film are brilliant, especially the sound design (Sachin Sudhakaran and Hariharan) and cinematography.”[14] Latha Srinivasan of India Today gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote “Produced by Rowdy Pictures, Connect is a film that belongs to Haniya Nafisa and the audience will remember her for a long time to come.”[15] Haricharan Pudipeddi of Hindustan Times wrote “The music and cinematography play a very key role in making Connect an exceptionally good cinematic experience.”[16] Arvind V of Pinkvilla gave the film’s rating 2.5 out of 5 and wrote “The narrative is satisfied with its spiritual convictions, giving the drama a raw deal.”[17] Srivatsan S of The Hindu wrote “For someone whose resume includes the stunning Game Over, you would ideally expect Ashwin to push the genre constraints. Connect is him settling for the ordinary.”[18] Thinkal Menon of OTT Play gave the film’s rating 3 out of 5 stars and wrote “The performances of lead actors save this run-of-the-mill horror film which has nothing new to offer in terms of story.”[19] A critic for India Herald gave a rating of 3 stars for the film and wrote “Overall, Connect is a story that might make you think of a lot of hollywood horror movies, but the superb sound and jump scares will mesmerise you in the theatre.”[20] Kirubhakar Purushothaman of The Indian Express gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote “Again, it is pretty amusing that of all kinds of Tamil mainstream cinema, a true-blue genre has represented the ones that are still grieving.