Kaashmora

Plot

Kaashmora(Karthi) and his family live by cheating people in the name of black magic and dark spirits. One day, a PhD research student Yamini(Sri Divya) joins Kaashmora, only to gather evidence and expose him to the public. Kaashmora's fame brings him to a superstitious and fraudulent Minister(Sharath Lohitashwa). Kaashmora earns the Minister's trust. When income tax department raids the minister's house, he asks his henchmen to transfer all the illegal money to Kaashmora's house. Seeing this as an opportunity to escape and settle abroad, Kaashmora's family escapes with the money. Meanwhile, Chelapathy Rao, a Telugu man seeks Kaashmora's help and brings him to a haunted bungalow in Andhra Pradesh. In the bungalow, Kaashmora is haunted by real ghosts.

Back in Chennai, the Minister learns that Kaashmora is a fraud and sends his henchmen to kill his family.The henchmen try to get Kaashmora from the bungalow but are unable to do so as the ghost beats them all and drags Kaashmora and his family inside the bungalow. Inside, they meet with a broker who got trapped inside the bungalow for a long time. The broker says that the bungalow was once a princess's palace. Ever since her death, residents and owners of the bungalow had met with an ill-fated death. He also tells that there are 13 ghosts in the bungalow. The trapped people meet the ghost of Raj Nayak, the head of all the 13 ghosts. Rajnayak asks Kaashmora to help him and his 13 subordinates reach the spiritual world. He then locks them in the castle. That night, a young girl(Smrithi) in Kaashmora's dream leads him to a locked door within the castle.

Waking up, Kaashmora follows the same route, but is stopped by Yamini, who reveals to him that Chelapathy Rao, the man who led him here, died 75 years ago and it was his ghost that led Kaashmora as well as Yamini to the bungalow. Kaashmora searches the castle and gets hold of an old book that dates back 700 years. Raj Nayak(also Karthi) was a self-obsessed warlord and a womanizer. The King remained silent and didn't interfere with Rajnayak's growing atrocities because of his military prowess. One day, the princess Rathna Mahadevi(Nayanthara) elopes with her lover who is the enemy nation's prince. The King announces that he'll marry off Rathna and give away half of his kingdom to the man who finds her. Rajnayak kills the prince and forcibly brings Rathna back. He demands to be wedded to the princess, and wants the other half of the kingdom as dowry. When opposed, he kills the crown Prince and the King. He marries Rathna and coronates himself as the King. However, Rathna has other plans. She and her friends seduces Rajnayak and his subordinates. While his subordinates are burned alive, Rajnayak is beheaded by Rathna. However, he kills her before dying. Before breathing her last, Rathna places a curse on the 14 men, banishing them from reaching the spiritual world.

Ever since, Rajnayak and the other 13 ghosts had haunted the palace and its occupants. An exorcist once had predicted that Raj Nayak and the other ghosts would reach eternal power if they are able to sacrifice the lives of 5 people belonging to the same family with the same birth star (Rohini). The sacrifice should be performed by a lady who is the only woman in her generation. This should happen during the Navakaali Pournami that occurs once every 1000 years. Kaashmora recollects that his family members all have the same birth sign and that Yamini is the only woman in her family.

That night, Navakaali Pournami occurs and Rajnayak forces Kaashmora and his family to a guillotine. The young girl from Kaashmora's dream apparates and she turns out to be Rathna Mahadevi's reincarnation. While Rathna and Raj Nayak fight each other, Kaashmora fends off the subordinate ghosts with the help of a magical sword. Rathna's conscience leads him to a chamber within the castle where Rajnayak's remains are. Using the sword, Kaashmora destroys the remains, making Rajnayak vulnerable. Rathna destroys Raj Nayak's spirit and it goes to the underworld. The other spirits flee the castle to the spiritual world. Kaashmora and his family get out of the castle and he claims that he has destroyed the spirits and cleansed the centuries haunted bungalow.

Cast

Production

Production was begun in the first week of May 2015. Karthi plays three roles: a king (Raj Nayak), a youth (Kaashmora) and another man. Nayanthara plays a princess and Sri Divya an investigative journalist, and Vivek was cast as Karthi’s father.

The music for the movie was composed by Santhosh Narayanan. Other crew includes the art director Rajeevan, editor V J Sabu Joseph, and cinematographer Om Prakash. The film was marketed as a mix of action and comedy.

Visual effects

It's been said that the "3D Face scan" technology, first of its kind for south Indian movie, has been used in this film. Karthi's face has been 3D scanned for an important sequence which will be running 15 minutes. Kaashmora comprises 80 minutes of VFX scenes. Director Gokul says that, 360-degree omnidirectional camera rig is used for shooting a particular sequence and this is the first time for an Indian movie to use this technology. This technology covers entire 360 degree, approximately entire sphere. Omnidirectional cameras are used where large visual field coverage is needed, such as in panoramic photography. This camera is used in this movie to shoot a song and few scenes. Art direction team has erected 17 sets in and around Chennai to make simultaneous filming process and to save time.

Soundtrack

Think Music has acquired the audio rights for the Tamil version, as well as the dubbed Telugu Version. The film's songs and background music are composed by Santhosh Narayanan with lyrics by Muthamil and Laitha Anand. There are six tracks in the album including two instrumentals. The film's soundtrack was released on 7 October 2016.