Spoilers ahead…
But the scares apart, there is no emotional depth. And the film does not show anything we have not seen in earlier stories about exorcism.
There are times Ashwin Saravanan’s Connect appears to be a COVID-era homage to The Exorcist. Here, too, we have a single mother, played by a gritty Nayanthara, alternating faith and fear. Here, too, we have a teenage daughter, played very nicely – at least from the few scenes she is “normal” – by Haniya Nafisa. Here, too, the father is absent – rather, he is dead. And he is replaced by both the Father from the local Church as well as God, the ultimate Father. And finally, there is the triumph of religion over science, which has failed to save mankind from a deadly outbreak. The demon that possesses the daughter, therefore, could be seen as a manifestation of the virus itself, which – like in The Exorcist – only faith can destroy. Then again, you don’t have to go so far and “read” this film at all. As a casual moviegoer, you can simply say you are strapping yourself into a scare-dispensing machine – and on that level, Connect does a pretty decent job.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/connect/
And you can watch the video review here:
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Baradwaj Rangan 
madhusudhan194
December 31, 2022
Just finished the film. Digress quite a bit from BR’s review. My quick thoughts on the film –
Ashwin Saravanan’s Connect is a terrifying deep dive into the horrors of losing our loved ones and the weight of relentless grief and sorrow thrust upon us by the pandemic.
It is also an incredibly moving tribute to the healthcare workers who selflessly put their lives at stake to save many more. It reminds us how grateful we should be if we somehow found our way out of the pandemic without losing anyone. For those of us who did face irreparable losses, it asks us to hang in there, and retain hope that things will get better.
Like the best genre films ever made, it manages to convey all of these at a sub-textual level while delivering a first rate horror film.
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