Live Telecast review: Venkat Prabhu is out of his depth as he seems to have exhausted his creative well in putting together a web show that tries to marry hunger for TRPs with the horror genre.
Director Venkat Prabhu’s maiden web show Live Telecast was a script that was written in 2005. In his own words, he converted the film script into a web series. Even the title card of Live Telecast shows a diary with 2005 written on it. Live Telecast, for the most part, stays true to the horror genre, but does it offer anything new?
The show starts with Jennifer Mathew aka Jenny (Kajal Aggarwal) hosting a success party of her show Dark Tales. When her show gets scrapped after a while, Jenny decides to prove to her employers that she can direct a hit show with her talented crew. They all brainstorm and decided to do a live telecast of their encounters in a haunted house in Shivkriti Hills in Yercaud.
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During live streaming of their show, the entire TV crew gets trapped in the haunted house with supernatural powers taking over. How Jenny and the others escape the house forms the story.
It is clear on screen that the story is written in 2005 because the proceedings don’t wow, they only give you a feeling of deja vu. The seven-episode series has some interesting elements, but it is bogged down by a ridiculous climax.
In today’s world, we have seen everything from Paranormal Activity to Conjuring and several other Korean horror films. Hence, the jumpscares in Live Telecast do not work out as it was intended.
Director Venkat Prabhu has done a perfect job in converting a film script into a show. Even the supporting characters like Vaibhav Reddy, Kayal Anandhi and others get a proper character arc, which helps the viewers understand their mindset. In the initial episodes, we see the good vs evil template, which was predominant in the 90s. Every ghost needs to encounter a god-like spirit to go away. In that way, Live Telecast was like seeing a hi-tech ghost/Amman film.
Live Telecast also mocks several cliched horror films, but still goes on to add them in their story. From doors creaking to ghosts walking about behind everyone’s back, everything you’ve seen in a horror film is there in the show. Also, the spirits in Live Telecast know only to lift people up by strangling them. It does the same to every single person inside the house.
Aravind (Daniel Annie Pope), who’s the anchor of the live streaming show, encounters the ghost in the first few episodes. Those sequences are quite ridiculous and fail to evoke a sense of tension in the views. Towards the climax, except Shekar (Vaibhav) everyone levitates for a few minutes. The scene is supposed to make you crawl into your bed, but you laugh instead.
Live Telecast could have been much crisper and the climax justification isn’t as convincing either. Kajal Aggarwal as the horror show’s director was perfect in her role. Vaibhav gets a nice role as art director Shekar and so does Kayal Anandhi as make-up artist Kalai.
Live Telecast is technically sound as the cinematography and editing worked well. Music by Premgi Amaren did enhance the overall feel of the web series. On the whole, Live Telecast is just a time pass watch.
