Evil Eye-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: Usha is convinced that the man her daughter Pallavi is dating is the same man who tried to harm her in his previous birth. 

There’s always been this curiosity about what happens when you die. Do you simply stop existing? Does your soul go to heaven or hell? Or does our soul enter another body? A rebirth. A reincarnation.

The concept of reincarnation is fascinating for the fact that it offers a second chance. If we believe in reincarnation we can feel like maybe we can get things right in another life. The concept of reincarnation is after all based on the notion that we are all here to serve a purpose and for some reason when we cannot complete our mission in this world, we are brought back. The cycle repeats until we learn what he has to do and complete the mission we were created for.

So yes, reincarnation stories are fascinating but not all of them are good and engaging.

EVIL EYE Movie Plot 

Evil Eye starts off with a young pregnant woman walking on a bridge when she is accosted by a man who then attacks her.

Years later, we meet Usha who is the same woman. She’s fine and in India after she got fed up of living in the US. She calls her daughter Pallavi and for some reason, it is morning there too. The time difference is a bit sketchy throughout the movie.

Pallavi is still in bed, her make-up intact after a night of partying. Her mother is calling her but she is more bothered about checking out her social media photos. Her mother tells her it is time she gets settled because she is going to turn twenty-nine. Pallavi isn’t too interested and loves it in her studio apartment.

Usha reminds Pallavi to wear the evil eye bracelet she sent at all times and although her daughter isn’t too superstitious, she wears it for her mother. Her father on the other hand doesn’t believe in astrology nonsense.

Pallavi goes to meet her friend Kelly who is pregnant and when Usha calls yet again, Pallavi starts warming up to the idea of getting married. Her mother had already set up a meeting for her and Pallavi finds herself agreeing to an arranged marriage.

She goes to the cafe with her friend and her friend peeks in and spots a “hot” guy. Pallavi too peeks in and realizes it isn’t the guy her mother set her up with. They make the peeking so obvious that the guy smirks.

Later when Pallavi is waiting at the table after finding out that the guy she was supposed to meet is stuck in traffic, the “hot” guy approaches her and introduces himself as Sandeep. Pallavi gets flirty and they leave the cafe together after some time. The guy Pallavi came to see finally arrives only to find empty cups at a table.

Usha calls Pallavi and reprimands her. Her daughter tells her that she waited for a long time and doesn’t need her to set her up on dates anymore because she met someone. Usha isn’t too thrilled.

Time passes quickly in this movie and in the next scene when Usha calls Pallavi, she’s already telling her about Sandeep and how much she likes him. The movie is mostly about time jumps and Usha and Pallavi talking on the phone all the time.

Sandeep isn’t too impressed with her apartment and tells her to let him pay rent for another apartment. Pallavi immediately says yes. Who is going to say no to a free apartment? And the benefits keep coming.

Apparently, Sandeep also convinces Pallavi to leave her job so she can focus on writing and not taking selfies every two seconds. So basically, Pallavi lives in a big apartment, her boyfriend is very, very rich and she doesn’t have to work at all. She’s living the dream but her mother thinks it is too good to be true and isn’t happy that Sandeep isn’t forcing her to get a job.

This just pushes Pallavi towards Sandeep even more.

Some more time passes and Kelly finally delivers a baby. At the party, Pallavi’s friends tease her about being smitten with Sandeep. Pallavi isn’t too sure. The movie is about trusting a mother’s instinct but Pallavi’s own instincts are ringing an alarm too.

Sandeep gifts her sapphire earrings to which she refuses and makes a remark about this being an engagement present. She, of course, didn’t mean to lead him on but he’s a rich guy paying for everything so she wants to make sure he’s hooked.

Usha takes the extreme step to ask Pallavi for Sandeep’s birth details so she can have his birth chart made. Pallavi refuses but Usha somehow still has the details. Without the place of birth, time and exact date, it is impossible to make a chart but somehow Usha manages. Later she admits to hiring a private detective so he’s probably the one who supplied her with that information?

The priest tells Usha that Sandeep is an amazing guy. Usha isn’t convinced. She finds he was expelled from school and has possible anger issues.

After meeting Sandeep, Pallavi has stopped wearing pants for some reason and when she talks to her boyfriend she reveals he had a girlfriend who almost killed herself when he broke up with her.

Soon enough Pallavi calls Usha to announce she’s engaged to Sandeep. Usha tells her about her findings and her daughter is disgusted that she hired a private detective. Sandeep talks to Usha and for some reason, she begins to have flashbacks of her past. Usha becomes ill due to her anxiety to the point she doesn’t even want to celebrate her birthday.

Pallavi’s father Krishnan calls her to tell her of her mother’s conditions and tells her of her mother’s painful past. Pallavi feels sorry for Usha and in the next call asks her mother to tell her all about her abusive boyfriend.

Usha tells her about her obsessive boyfriend who didn’t take the break up well and followed her to Delhi even after she was married. She hid the fact from Krishnan which was a mistake because one night, when she was eight months pregnant, her boyfriend attacked her and brought her head down against the bridge wall, giving her a scar. Somehow she managed to fight him and throw him off the bridge.

Pallavi is shocked that her mother is a murderer but Usha assures her she got away with it. She pretty much boasts about it but believes her boyfriend cast an evil eye on her unborn baby. Pallavi now understands her mother’s paranoia and makes her speak to Sandeep when she again warns her against him.

Sandeep invites Usha over and stays in his guest room for as long as she likes. Usha doesn’t say anything but after her husband and daughter urge her to get help, she starts to believe that perhaps it is her mind playing tricks on her and she is traumatized and needs help.

But one day as she is scrolling through her daughter’s social media profile, she finds a picture of her and Sandeep and of course, Pallavi finally took the sapphire earrings. The very same design that Usha’s abusive boyfriend gave to her.

This was something any traumatized person would throw away rather than keep any souvenir of the past, but they are sapphire and of course, Usha kept her earrings as well.

She also realizes that Sandeep is her boyfriend’s reincarnation. She calls up Pallavi but this time it is Sandeep who picks up and tells her he remembers who he is and can’t wait to see her. He promises not to hurt Pallavi and sincerely didn’t make the connection or remember anything until he heard Usha’s voice.

EVIL EYE Ending Explained with spoilers! 

It is now Pallavi’s birthday and Usha and Krishnan decide to call her in the evening. But of course, Usha leaves for the airport instead to go see her daughter. She makes the sixteen-hour flight in fewer hours to arrive on the morning of Pallavi’s birthday. Sandeep meets with her instead and is pleased to see her. He is still into her despite the age difference. He tells her to behave at dinner or he would be compelled to hurt her daughter.

At dinner, Pallavi is surprised and Usha makes up a lie about Sandeep sending tickets but her father not wanting to come because he didn’t want charity. Sandeep makes a snide remark about their financial position and Pallavi defends her family.

Usha instigates him at which point he tells her to her mouth shut. Pallavi isn’t liking Sandeep’s volatile anger. Usha parts her hair to show her the same earrings Pallavi is wearing. Sandeep takes almost thirty years to come back only to have the same tastes in jewellery design and nothing else.

Pallavi is shocked and asks Sandeep if he knows her mother. Sandeep loses it immediately and starts attacking mother and daughter. He stabs Usha and Pallavi struggles with him. Eventually, both mother and daughter overpower him.

At the hospital, Usha is absolutely alright and has met an Indian doctor who she thinks would be great for her daughter. Pallavi wakes up and snuggles with her mother in the bed. Krishnan did not make use of the fast travel feature in the movie to come to see his wife.

Elsewhere in the hospital, a code blue is announced, presumably Sandeep dying, just as a baby is born. So Sandeep is born again. Will Usha still be alive by the time he takes another thirty years to remember who he is? At that point maybe Usha will be happy to find someone who is willing to take care of her in her old age.

Maybe it’s a good thing he’s getting reincarnated after all.

Scare scale: 2/5