Annabelle Sethupathi tries to evoke curiosity in the viewer from the very first scene. A weird plot of a bunch of ghosts caught in a beautiful palace unfolds, without much logic as to why they are locked in there and cannot leave. Equally nonsensical is the one uncertain solution there is to their predicament. I am still trying to get over the ridiculousness of the story, so I’ll try to summarise it the best I can.
The plot borrows from the oft-repeated trope of old haunted palaces, reincarnation and unsatisfied spirits. A modern-day Indian reincarnation of a British woman (Taapsee Pannu) from the 1940s enters the palace that was built for her by a king (Vijay Sethupathi), is confronted by a bunch of ghosts whom only she can see and who think she is their ticket to salvation.
The director’s assumption that this was a film worth making is as baffling as the decision to cast Taapsee in both her British and Indian characters. In her fancy fedoras and floral dresses, she resembles a model for a spring-summer fashion line than a woman from 1945. Vijay Sethupathi, who makes an entry in the second half, looks like a badly dressed north Indian groom in most frames. Costumes are key to establishing a period and the maker’s lack of attention to this detail, among many others, is a clear indication of a job done without dedication.