Story

Jai brings his usual charm and boy next door casualness to Kutty making the role easily likeable.  He also looks both pitiful and menacing in the Pennyworth inspired makeup and shines in the action sequences too in the climax. Nothing new in the way he has portrayed the other role Charlie during the flashback.  Anjali as the supportive wife does a very neat job never for once overdoing, a mark of the seasoned actress she is.   Yogi Babu is the star of the show cracking one joke after another and countering all and sundry throughout the film.  Watch out for the scene in which he sleeps with the "pei" doll.  The boy who plays Pappu is a scream working up Yogi Babu in every frame they are together and has also carried off being possessed neatly.  Janani Iyer is wasted in an inconsequential role and 'Aramm' Rams and Naganeedu are also in the cast.

The entire  first half is quite engaging  with the a liberal dose of comedy and thrills mixed well into the screenplay.  The sequence that leads to the interval is very thrilling and also has a shock value.  A filmmaker's grouse with the Caste based political leaders who try to hinder a film's release has been devoted much time in 'Balloon' and the director even enjoys unleashing a couple of ghosts on them in the end.

What deflates 'Balloon' to a large extent is the second half petering away into mediocrity and a very weak flashback.  While the thrill is there in anticipation of what the spirit could be once the girl appears and she, the boy and Anjali are zombiefied a sense of dejavu sets in.  The film tries to be a comedy, a horror, a reincarnation and a revenge story all at the same time and succeeds only in parts.  The connection the writer-director tries to make between the present and the past characters of Jai  is so insipid that it creates unintentional comedy.