NAMASLAY

Namaslay without question has a promising concept, mixing social horror, magic and yoga that promises a scary fun time, that makes for a commendable feature film debut for writers and directors Rish Arhant-Sudhir and Kanish Arhant-Sudhir even if it takes a little too long to become the film horror fans will want it to be.

Ever since Jordan Peele released Get Out back in 2017, there has been a boom in interest for the social horror subgenre. Tackling different ideas of race, identity and politics, there have been few stories and ideas left untouched by the subgenre of late, and while the darkness at the centre of Rish Arhant-Sudhir and Kanish Arhant-Sudhir’s first film may feel familiar at times, it’s reimagining of masala cinema, social satire and bloody terror keeps Namaslay a fun time throughout. Tackling the work of professional yoga studios, the westernization of it, and Indian myths, there are lots of great ideas at play in Namaslay with a committed cast that evokes the tone of screenplay with ease, even if the pacing of the story’s development could have been tighter.

From a writing perspective, the Arhant-Sudhir brothers are never subtle when it comes to the satire aspects of the film. Immediately from the second that Gayatri walks into Reyna’s yoga studio, the white woman privilege and saviour complex comes in like a tidal wave as Reyna immediately sets her sights on Gayatri as diversity, equity and inclusion become central ideas to the screenplay and Reyna’s actions. It only escalates from there as Reyna begins training Gayatri to become a yoga instructor, with Reyna overcompensating to champion Gayatri and her culture over the white females in the class. Over the top in an uncomfortable manner, both fueling the film’s social commentary as well as teasing the evil within the yoga studio, there is no surprise where the story is going to go in its latter half, as the film is Get Out within the yoga world… in the most complimentary way possible.

With a clear narrative path laid out, the pacing of the story’s development does hinder the film. There are countless uncomfortable experiences that Gayatri has with Reyna and her staff, with them becoming profoundly weirder at the instructors’ retreat which is the setting for the film’s second half, dropping bigger and bigger hints of what is actually about to occur. But, the screenplay spends too long in setting up and teasing the terrors of the final act, only to be forced to cram the terrors of Reyna and her disciples into the film’s concluding minutes. While there are lots of great moments during the buildup, leaning into the masala cinema influences of the film including one trippy sequence in the second act, the screenplay needed to lean harder into these bizarre moments to amplify the cultural blending of ideas at the heart of masala cinema and to justify the amount of time the screenplay kept audiences waiting for the bloody mayhem of the film’s final act. Once it does reach its final act, Namaslay delivers on the wild promise of its name and the buildup of the screenplay, it is just a case of wanting a more concise road to this part of the story and having more time to explore what is actually happening at the yoga retreat than the film allows for, which would have resulted in a stronger film overall.

Supporting the writing are solid lead performances and strong below the line work given the film’s small budget. Kiru Srikanth makes for a commendable final girl, bringing an unwavering strength and sense of self worth to Gayatri that gives the viewer a heroine they can root for, while building moments of compassion while exploring the relationship with her recently deceased grandmother and other women of colour trapped in Reyna’s web. From the second Christina Moore appears on screen as Reyna, a sense of unease washes over the film as Moore’s sickly sweet and hypersensitive outward appearance never for a second fools the audience, teasing the more sinister intentions of Reyna. Moore plays it with a delicacy, creating an untrustworthy character with a fake altruism that is convincing enough to trick Gayatri into joining the yoga studio, but never enough to hoodwink viewers who can see the groundwork being laid by both Moore and the Arhant-Sudhir brothers to set up the film’s final act. And despite the film’s more modest budget, the visual effects for the final are impressive (given what they are working with) and create the perfect amount of spine tingling moments when paired alongside the  practical make up and prosthetic work and the lighting of the film’s set to make the most terrifying vision on screen imaginable.

Even though the ultimate destination of Namaslay is not going to surprise fans given the familiar path it shares with others films within the social horror subgenre, it doesn’t mean that the journey getting there is not entertaining. With tons of cringe worthy moments teasing a more sinister intention and strong performances from Kiru Srikanth and Christina Moore in the film’s leading roles, despite the screenplay getting stuck in a repetitive cycle and prolonging the madness of the third act, the critique on the westernization of yoga and reinvention of masala cinema finds the requisite energy to bolster the terror lurking beneath the surface of Namaslay which results in an entertaining social horror film with a mean bite.