School

School Movie Synopsis: A school is haunted by spirits of dead students linked to the principal's motivational book.

School Movie Review: School is a ghost movie with a message. Or rather, what happens when you put ghosts in charge of career counseling. You've got familiar faces - Bucks as a school principal, Chaams as his dim-wit assistant, KS Ravikumar as a loud inspector, plus Yogi Babu and Bhumika popping up as ex-teachers. Throw in Ilaiyaraaja's music, and you'd think all this talent would produce something decent. Think again.

The setup's simple enough. Principal Nambirajan (Bucks) runs a school where weird stuff happens. People get possessed, copies of his self-help book ‘Mindset of Success’ spontaneously combust, and mysterious numbers appear on walls. Enter inspector Kaleshwaran (KS Ravikumar), who scoffs at ghost stories until his own son vanishes. It's basically asking whether pushing kids to “win at all costs” might just cost them everything.

What's odd is the film has this mildly comic vibe that never quite meshes with its serious message about student suicides. It's not a comedy, but it's not taking itself seriously either. When your central plot device is a book, maybe give it some thought? This Mindset of Success appears to be a 500-page doorstop. Who writes a motivational book that thick? After 500 pages of anecdotes and affirmations, even the most optimistic person would start planning their escape route.

Everything feels ridiculous. The spirits look like cartoon animations, possessed characters act like bad theater, there's that absurdly chunky book again, people react casually to student deaths, and an exorcist shows up looking like he time-traveled from the '90s. The film remains watchable thanks to seasoned performers. Bucks, Chaams, and KS Ravikumar occasionally summon moments of amusement. Yogi Babu and Bhumika gets randomly spliced into the second half like an afterthought to solve everything.Visually, it screams early 2000s - take that however you want.

School has a decent message buried under strange execution. Sometimes the road to hell really is paved with good intentions.

Written By: Abhinav Subramanian