In Ghost House Inn

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The fabulous four are back to what they are good at, tickling the funny bone once again, after In Harihar Nagar and 2 Harihar Nagar. It's a lethal combination of horror and comedy that Lal has attempted this time. To his credit, the film works pretty well as a mindless entertainer that never allows the viewer to think about the logic or even to look into the watch, while the action is happening on the screen. The story has been set at a hill station, where Thomas Kutty (Asokan) has bought a huge bungalow, to start a resort. Now, it's a dreaded place with a history that dates back to several decades, when some murders had happened there. The rest of the gang, Mahadevan (Mukesh), Govindankutty (Siddique) and Appukkuttan (Jagadeesh) comes there in order to prove to all that the mysteries surrounding the ill-fated bungalow are indeed wrong. But things don't happen the way they would have liked.

In all fairness, the film has some nice moments that can take you along with its narration. The director has succeeded in creating an ambience where you are not certain whether to believe the intriguing happenings as real or fake. The initial sequence in flashback creates a totally different mood and that is an intelligent move, considering it is a deviation from the style of the earlier two movies in the series. Of course, the jokes are there and as usual, Appukkuttan is at his idiotic best.

But what lacks here, sadly, is a credible storyline. The jokes too are at most times, repetitive and contrived. Once you start thinking about the logic behind the story, the fissures in the script comes to your mind pretty easily. Still, the highlight of the film could be its climax where the director has tried to pull things together. Don't miss the goofs during the shooting which have been shown along with the end titles, which is quite funny and at times, even more enjoyable than some of the gags in the film.

The four lead actors and their wives (played by Rohini, Lena, Reena Basheer and Rakhi) have all done their parts pretty well, though Jagadeesh at times seems to mimic some of his own trademark dialogues and mannerisms. The inimitable Nedumudi Venu looks excellent as always and Radhika has performed very well, in her brief role.

It is to the credit of Lal that he managed to develop the film into an engaging one, even with a rather ordinary storyline and script. Venu's camera does a good job and Alex Paul's music and background score suits the mood.
Of course, it's never easy to live up to the huge expectations of the viewers while making a sequel to a popular film, especially when the natures of the characters are all well known to them. With its fast pace, humour and some nice twists especially towards the end, In Ghost House Inn manages to entertain the viewers to some extent. If you don't mull over the logic or go with too much expectation, well, it could end up as a less than two and a half hour long 'okay fun'.