Anjali’s Lisaa abounds with jump scares and insipid comic scenes. Debutant director Raju Viswanath has a decent premise but he kills it with underwhelming execution.
Lisaa (Anjali) has a hard time convincing her single mother to accept a new life partner since she will be leaving for the US soon. But her mom, who is still guilty of leaving her parents for her deceased husband, is hesitant. Lisaa suggests that she will convince her grandparents, who live in some interior part of the Western Ghats. The first few minutes of the film are all about the unconvincing set-up that will lead Lisaa and her friend Jaggu (Sam Jones) to the bungalow of her grandparents. On top of it, we have a horrific comedy track featuring Brahmananda that has nothing to do with the film and there is Yogi Babu as well, who does his usuals.
Once Lisaa arrives at the bungalow, she finds her grandparents to be super weird. Her grandpa, with his uber-cool hairdo and deep voice, and grandma with a sinister look, suggest that something uncanny is going on in the bungalow. Located in some remote location that doesn’t have cellular network coverage, Lisaa and Jaggu are more or less trapped with these old weirdos. The two youngsters go through some scary experiences and are convinced that the house is haunted. And, when Anjali starts to doubt whether the old couple is really her grandparents, things escalate pretty fast.