Since then, the movie has been telecast more than a hundred times in various television channels (in Telugu and Malayalam of course). As to what triggered the producers to dub the movie and release in Tamil at this juncture is puzzling. It could be Riya Sen’s liberal skin show, Kavya’s lack of it and or just to cash in on the horror fever that seems to have caught Tamil cinema off late.

As for the movie itself, Sivapuram is the cinematic adaptation of the award winning novel written by Sunil Parameshwaram. The movie delves deep into the supernatural elements including spirits and tells the story of a sorcerer, who is an expert black-magician. Set in the lushly locales of rural Kerala, the entire movie is an interesting tale of good versus evil told in the backdrop of a mysterious Shivakavu (snake temple) and the Nagamanikyam (diamond) guarded by its serpents.

While Manoj K Jeyan as the black magician Digambaran spooks the daylights out of you, Prithviraj’s role as Ananthan who is a disbeliever caught in the tangle of supernatural elements is admirable. Kalabhavan Mani as the blind martial arts expert, Kavya Madhavan, Riya Sen, Revathi and Cochin Hanifa play convincing roles.

Santosh Sivan’s direction and camera must have been fresh and a treat for the eyes when the movie was released. Now it is all botched and makes it look like the entire movie was made in bad lighting. Blame it on the picture quality that is more than four years old.

There is no denial of the fact that Malayalam and Tamil have striking similarities as spoken languages. But that is not an excuse for bad dubbing and atrocious borrowing of Malayalam words into the Tamil version. And the lip syncs obviously do not match either - same for the beautiful songs that were once chartbusters in M G Radhakrishnan’s music.

Saby Cyril was to direct Anandabhadram that was later taken over by Santosh Sivan. Sivan’s screenplay and taut direction are one of the very many pluses of the (original version) movie.

If you ask us, there is no point wasting money on a movie that’s being telecast every other weekend on the Malayalam television channels.

Verdict: Good movie, bad dubbing!