[Review] Evil Eye(2020) {5.5/10}

Directed by Elan and Rajeev Dassani with a screenplay by Madhuri Shekar, the film stars Sarita Choudhury (Usha Khatri), Sunita Mani (Pallavi Khatri), Bernard White (Krishnan Khatri) and Omar Maskati (Sandeep). It is based on Madhuri Shekar's Audible Original audio play of the same name. It was executive produced by Jason Blum of Blumhouse Television and Priyanka Chopra of Purple Pebble Pictures.

The plot follows Usha (Sarita Choudhury) who is convinced that her daughter's new boyfriend has a dark connection to her own past. The Evil Eye may just be a lot of superstitious nonsense, but she believes in it deeply ever since she had to kill an ex-boyfriend who was attacking her on a bridge in Delhi. She's certain he's cursed Pallavi (Sunita Mani), the daughter she was carrying in her womb at the moment of the attack. Now, 29 years later, Pallavi, living a world away in New Orleans, is trying to find a nice Indian guy so her mother will stop sending her on blind dates with other nice Indian men from "good" families. When Pallavi starts dating Sandeep (Omar Maskati), Usha worries the romance is proceeding too quickly. She sends a detective to check him out. Things don't add up. When Usha finally talks to her daughter's prospective fiancé, he reveals that he's indeed the controlling, violent man Usha broke up with years before. Can Usha convince Pallavi that she's marrying a nasty, reincarnated dead man before it's too late?

Sarita Choudhury is a gift to any movie, so it's the good fortune of this film to have her talent and charm offset the downright silliness of its plot. When the plot unfurls, it boils down to the unlikely outcome that a guy in his 20s wants to have the woman, now near her 60s, who jilted him decades before when he was someone else. So why does he need to marry Usha's daughter? Why does he tell Usha that if she tries to interfere, he'll kill Pallavi? When the young handsome Sandeep finally meets up with 60ish Usha and tells her that he's lured her by using the daughter, all because he wants Usha "forever," the story just falls apart. While the thriller, with its good mix of romance, cultural portrayal and supernatural elements, remains engrossing, it fails to be scary along the way. The flashback scenes aren't always effective, making it hard for the viewer to take the scenes very seriously. Also, the plot makes one expect a lot from Maskati whose performance is largely bland. Moreover, the characters Pallavi and Sandeep lack layers and seem very generic. Evil Eye even suggests that as one bad man expires his evil soul enters a newborn's body to do further mischief decades in the future. Teens can find much better scares and thrills elsewhere.

Evil Eye is now available on Amazon Prime Video.