Evil Eye Parent Guide

When Pallavi’s (Sunita Mani) mom, Usha (Sarita Coudhury) moved from New Orleans back to Delhi, Pallavi thought that she’d finally get a break from her mother’s determination to get her married. No such luck. The wonders of the internet mean that even from across the world, Usha can still set her daughter up with eligible Indian men. Not that it’s working. Pallavi is now 29 and still (according to Usha) tragically single. But a chance encounter at a coffee shop with the handsome Sandeep (Omar Maskati) sends Pallavi on a whirlwind romance - a romance which has Usha deeply worried. Sandeep seems too good to be true, coming from a wealthy family and offering to pay for Pallavi’s apartment…but more than that, he reminds Usha a little too much of a dangerous abuser in her past.

Dark relationship thrillers don’t tend to be innovative. Most of them end up with the violent abuser being revealed as a violent abuser, and some poor woman recovering in hospital and trying to put her life back together. While this isn’t much different (as you can see from the trailer), the Indian cultural flair does make it more interesting.

What really carries Evil Eye is the relationship between Pallavi and Usha, which is brilliantly brought to life by Sunita Mani and Sarita Choudhury. Unfortunately, Omar Maskati (who plays Sandeep) doesn’t do “villainous” very well (which is a significant problem for the bad guy of the piece). He’s just fine as the charming and roguish bachelor, but when the time comes for some shady business, he gets rather wooden.

This film is not suited to younger audiences, although older teenagers who like the genre should be alright. The show has considerably less sex than most relationship thrillers, and the violence is a much less graphic. Language is the primary concern here, with four sexual expletives. Most dialogue is perfectly acceptable for a family audience, and the profanity comes in brief spurts motivated by the hazards of the plot. Evil Eye is unrated, but aside from the f-bombs, it feels like a PG-13 movie.

Although this production has a paint-by-numbers feel in the broad strokes, the Indian cultural influence means they’re brighter colors than you’d see in a Western production, which makes Evil Eye pretty watchable for fans of the genre. I don’t know that this thriller is going to snag a lot of new viewers, but if you’re looking for another lockdown distraction, this ought to fit the bill.