Zero (2016 film)

Plot

The movie starts off with the story of how the god created people and how Adam and Eve came into being, and then the screen moves to the present where they show newly wedded couple Bala (Ashwin Kakumanu) and Priya (Sshivada) moving in to their new apartment. Bala's dad does not accept the marriage because of Priya's past where her mom had gone mad after she was pregnant with Priya, and after Priya was born, she died. Bala accepts Priya even after knowing her past. After the marriage, they visit a store where in Priya's purse there is a stolen pink lipstick which she did not steal according to her, she argues with the security and starts to abuse him. After returning to home and refusing to meet Bala's visiting father, she shares her past with the neighborhood lady the story about her mother and how she does not have the luck to be pregnant. Later that night, Priya dreams about her mother and talks to her about how they called her a thief, and initially reluctant, she accepts that she did steal the lipstick and how she has an affinity towards pink color and how she enjoys it, and after that, she soon enters a world where her mother is and starts sleepwalking at night. This is the part where weird things starts to happen around her and she starts seeing illusions and becomes almost mad and stabs Bala one day. She gets sucked into the world her mom is and Lillith (Adreanne) starts to roam freely after taking over the body of Priya. Bala searches for Solomon (JD Chakravarthy), who has the supernatural ability to speak with ghosts and is an occult specialist and explains the situation to him. Solomon confronts the possessed Priya and when Priya touches Solomon, he sees everything about the being called Lillith who was created before Eve at the beginning of the time with Adam and how when Lilith rebelled and abandoned Adam did God create Eve as Adam's better half. God had cursed Lilith for abandoning Adam with the inability to have a child and Lilith conceived so many times with the devil's child but every child was dead as still born, and she finally becomes a hateful spirit who, over the time as a spirit, tortured caused pregnant women to miscarry, and kill themselves and trapping their soul in her spirit world, and Priya is the only child to escape her death, and now she wants to destroy the world as part of devils' bidding. It is revealed that The Devil himself, in he form of a snake has sent Lilith to carry his mission to destroy the world. Since Bala is a hindrance in her mission, she decides to kill him, but the Devil suggests that since Lilith resides in Priya's body and if Lilith touches Bala, her powers will be lost, as Priya and Bala have been soulmates for several births and their love is stronger than Lilith. Solomon explains the situation to other priests and priests from different parts of the world come together to challenge Lillith and they fail. When Lillith tries to choke Bala, he touches her, and Priya starts to remember all the times they spent together and gets unpossessed, and when Lillith was about to possess Priya again God froze time and saves the world and the God blesses Priya with pregnancy, it is then revealed that God chose the couple to be the parents of his child. The film ends with the Devil in the form a snake taking his usual form of a giant human and vowing to complete his mission by himself, hinting at a possible sequel!

Cast

Production

Shiv Mohaa, an associate of Bharat Bala, worked on the pre-production of the supernatural film for a year before approaching the producers and signing on Ashwin and Sshivada to play the lead roles. The team began production in June 2014, with scenes featuring Ashwin, Sshivada and JD Chakravarthy shot in Chennai. Further scenes will be shot in North India.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Nivas K. Prasanna and it received positive reviews from critics. Behindwoods gave it a 3/5 saying that it is a "soulful" album which "one might take time to warm up to it." Indiaglitz also gave it a 3/5 saying it is "for the melody lovers."

Critical Reception

The film opened to mixed reviews from critics. Behindwoods gave it a 2.25/5 saying that it has "good research, strong music, but a complicated screenplay." The Hindu stated, "From a thrilling tale about a woman battling mental illness, the film, for all its signs of promise, reduces itself to another exorcism story." Deccan Chronicle gave it a 2.5/5 saying that it is "a thrilling ride into the unknown." The Times of India gave it a 3/5 saying that, "Zero is certainly that rare film where the audience is unsure where it will go next."

International Recognition

Despite the film���s tepid run at the box office,the film had received a rare international honor. "It gives us great pleasure to inform you that Rocheston Accreditation Institute, New York, confers the Distinguished Design honor upon your film ���Zero���. Distinguished Design is an honor awarded in recognition of exceptional artistic creation and technique, innovation, and excellence in design that is an inspiration to people universally," says an official certificate from Rocheston.

"Through the phenomenal amount of work put into creating an extraordinary screenplay for the movie ���Zero���, you have conceived a story that offers a unique cinematic experience to the audience. Truly, we at Rocheston passionately believe that your film "Zero��� deserves to be honored with Rocheston���s Distinguished Design Award. It would be our privilege to have you accept this prestigious award," the certificate adds.