Plot

A mischievous youngster Sanjay (Satyam Rajesh) plans to make his so called lover Sandhya (Sushma Raj) fall into his trap of intimate thoughts. He plans to take her to a farm house in Chengalpet, but the couple ends up landing in a restricted area, a haunted house. In the house is our Nayaki Gayathri (Trisha) who has a plan for the couple. What is her plan and what is she doing over there at the haunted house? This makes up the primary plot of Nayaki.

Direction and Screenplay

Looks like Govi is heavily inspired from the 1980s amman movies. In the recent years, Kollywood has witnessed an array of horror comedies, and this one is yet another addition. The film neither scares you, nor evokes a laughter, nor conveys a message. The initial five to ten minutes make us believe that the premise is going to be promising, as it raises many questions. But when you wait for the answers in the second half, you might be disappointed. An age old template is what Nayaki screenplay is all about. There's a heroine introduction, uninteresting romance portions, love song, ghost gimmicks, ghost beating up victims, a flashback for the ghost, climax 'pei' song, and everything else. The dialogues too are ineffective. The slapstick comedy, which is intended to be funny, is not funny either.

Cast

Trisha has given a decent performance, but her screen presence doesn't work in the favour of the film's engagement. She tries her best to save the film, but unable to. Satyam Rajesh and Sushma Raj entertain the audience at places. Jayaprakash and Ganesh Venkatraman have delivered well, but one might feel bad about a performer like Jayaprakash being wasted. Veteran actor Brahmanandam comes in the climax and his presence doesn't add any value to the film. Even Ajith's Mankatha BGM for his entry couldn't help.

Technical

Jagadeesh's camera work gives a retro feel to the movie. Raghu Kunche's songs don't stay in your heart, or ring in your ears, even for few minutes. Background score by Sai Karthik is average and at times, the music gives you a deja-vu feel. The film runs for only 120 minutes, but it doesn't seem like that. Unnecessary songs and elongated slapstick comedy scenes could have been avoided. Though it is a Tamil - Telugu bilingual, there are few dubbing issues in the film.