It was a graveyard smash.

 Naangam Pirai (2013) , also known as Dracula 2012, hints at an intriguing premise; what if Dracula traveled to India, and had to navigate an entirely different supernatural world while quenching his blood thirst.  That was the premise of Hammer Studio's Kali, Devil Bride of Dracula, which was never filmed but later was released as an audio drama, The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula.  Naangam Pirai, on the other hand, flirts lightly with that premise but instead answers an entirely different question:  What if we remade 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula, only set in India and with a budget of thirty five dollars?

 

Roy Thomas (Sudheer Sukumaran) and his new wife Lucy (Priya Nambiar) are traveling to London for their honeymoon, but at Roy's insistence they spend a few days at Bran Castle in Romania.  Roy has always been fascinated by the legend of Count Dracula, and he hopes to find his way into the sealed room in the basement where, as everybody knows, Dracula was entombed after being defeated by the Romanian Bishops.  Before making the attempt, though, he calls his guru, the pandit Suryyamoorthy (Nassar) to confirm that Indian spiritual practices can invoke foreign spirits.  Suryamoorthy says yes, and does not ask any follow up questions, which in retrospect was a poor decision.

Roy finds his way into the secret room in the basement, because security at the castle consists of one guy stationed outside.  he succeeds in contacting Dracula's spirit, and Dracula explains, in English, that he needs to possess a dead body in order to walk freely through the world.  The door opens, and Dracula enters in the form of a genuinely terrible CGI demon bat thing.  Said demon bat thing slooowly kills Roy, over the course of an entire day, while Lucy and the police search the castle.  Then Lucy goes back to the hotel to take a bath, and Dracula, now in Roy's body, shows up to bite her.

Back in India, Roy's brother, a policeman named Benny (Krishna) and the rest of the family are worrying about Roy and Lucy, who have vanished without a word.  Meanwhile, Raju (Aryan) delivers a set of long boxes filled with dirt to the mansion of one Doctor William D'Souza.  D'Souza is strange (and is also Roy.Dracula using an alias), but Raju is easily impressed, especially after D'Souza saves him from a pack of wild dogs and invites him to stay overnight.  And D'Souza is absolutely fascinated when he spots a picture of Raju's fiance Meena (Monal Gajjar), who is, of course, the reincarnation of the Princess of Transylvania, Dracula's long lost love.

Meena is Suryamoorthy's daughter, but the old pandit is away on a pilgrimage.  The real problem for Dracula is Meenat's sister Taara (Shraddha Das), who has sensed unspecified danger and is performing a ritual to keep her family safe.  Dracula uses Raju to gain an introduction to Taara, and asks her about the ritual.  She explains that once it's finished, the family will be safe from supernatural attack, which means that Taara is suddenly Dracula's first target.  He puts on his fightin' cape and interrupts the ritual.  Taara bravely defies him until he tears off her protective amulet, then she's immediately overcome by his hypnotic powers.

Meanwhile, Benny has been approached by the mysterious Doctor Paul Robinson (Rabhu), who explains the whole vampire business and steps into the Van Helsing role.  And when Suryamoorthy returns from his pilgrimage and learns what happened to his daughter, the stage is set for an epic battle of good versus evil.  or it would be, if the fearless vampire hunters weren't so incompetent.  They make too many mistakes to list here, most crucially, they know that Meena shouldn't be left alone at night.  Meena explains as clearly as she can that she shouldn't be left alone, because she can't resist Dracula when he's with her.  They promise Meena that they will not leave her alone.  Then they immediately leave her alone so that they can grab something from outside, only to be menaced by a swarm of easily avoided bats.  

Fortunately for Meena and the world, Dracula is also not very good at his job, which means that the fate of the world comes down to Raju and Dracula having a shirtless fist-fight in a cemetery.

 Nangaam Pirai has a low budget and it shows, especially in the Shaktimaan-level special effects.    And that's fine, even when they insist on bringing back the unconvincing demon bat thing over and over again.  The acting is . . . . not subtle, and that's fine, too.  A bit of scenery chewing can be fun sometimes, and good writing makes up for a lot.

And then there's the writing.  I don't generally like the "Mina is Dracula's reincarnated lost love" plotline, but it can absolutely work in an Indian context.  It does not work here, because the movie doesn't do anything with it.  It's an excuse for Dracula to go after Meena, but Dracula doesn't need an excuse to go after Meena.  He's a vampire!  It's what they do.

The real problem with the movie is that you can see occasional flashes of a better movie, which then get dropped.  Taara is set up as an intriguing foil for Dracula, then she immediately crumbles and becomes one of his brides.  Both the brides of Dracula have fleshed out characters and a real connection to the heroes, but they vanish for most of the movie.  Suryamoorthy musters all his spiritual strength and calls upon his Goddess, promising an epic supernatural climax, but nope, shirtless fist fight.  

Ignore the hints of a better movie, and Naangam Pirai is reasonably entertaining nonsense; for all its many flaws, it's not boring.  But if you try to take it seriously, it's a bit frustrating.