Film

Massu Engira Masilamani

A charming con man discovers he can see ghosts and spots a golden opportunity—until he meets his doppelgänger from the afterlife with a more sinister agenda. This Tamil comedy-thriller swings wildly between slapstick, genuine scares, and surprisingly tender moments. It's for people who like their genre films messy, ambitious, and unafraid to chase a wild idea into the dark.

TMDb rating2.6

If you liked this

Ghostbusters1984

The spiritual ancestor of con-man-meets-the-supernatural comedies. It nails the tone of treating ghosts as both a business opportunity and a genuine threat, with chemistry between leads that makes the chaos feel earned.

But The special effects are now visibly dated, and it moves at a 1980s pace that younger viewers sometimes find slow.

Ghostbusters poster

Bhool Bhulaiyaa2007

A Hindi film that does similar work—blending psychological horror, family drama, and comedy into a crowd-pleaser that never settles into one gear. Akshay Kumar's performance proves a star's charm can carry a film that refuses to pick a lane.

But The plot mechanics collapse under scrutiny, and the tonal shifts will feel jarring if you're expecting consistency.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa poster

Karthik Calling Karthik2010

A Bollywood thriller about a man who may or may not be losing his mind, anchored by Kartik Aryan's ability to make the audience doubt what they're seeing. It trusts ambiguity and audience intelligence over easy answers.

But The pacing is deliberate to the point of slowness, and the ending divides viewers on whether the mystery was worth the setup.

Karthik Calling Karthik poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Massu Engira Masilamani

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Sixth Sense1999

Both centre on a protagonist with the same supernatural ability, but flip the moral and tonal registers entirely. One is about trauma and burden; the other is about opportunity and mischief.

The film that made the 'can see dead people' premise iconic, but as a serious psychological thriller rather than comedy. Watching it back-to-back with Massu shows two completely different answers to the same supernatural gift—one haunted, one entrepreneurial.

But The twist ending is now famous enough to spoil itself, and the film's restraint is the opposite of Massu's chaos, which some find glacial.

The Sixth Sense poster
More like this (8)

Chandramukhi2005

Rajinikanth in a horror-comedy where a possessed woman and a con man collide. It proves Tamil cinema has always been willing to mix registers, and that a star's personality can make genre-blending feel natural rather than confused.

But It's nearly three hours, and the back half slumps into melodrama that some find earnest and others find unintentionally funny.

Chandramukhi poster

Stree2018

A Hindi horror-comedy that treats its ghost story as both genuinely eerie and legitimately funny. The lead has real chemistry with his co-star, and the film never winks at its own sincerity, which is why it works.

But Some horror moments veer into jump-scares that feel cheap, and the film banks on familiarity with a particular folklore.

Stree poster

Pisaasu2014

A Tamil horror-comedy about a man haunted by his past, literally. It's lower-budget and rougher than bigger productions, but that scrappiness gives it a distinctive edge and genuine unpredictability.

But The production values are visibly constrained, and some jokes land better in Tamil than they translate universally.

Pisaasu poster

Badrinath Ki Dulhania2017

Not a thriller, but proof that Hindi cinema in this era could make character-driven comedies with chaotic energy and real romantic stakes. If you loved the charm in Massu, this shows how that charm plays in a different gear.

But It's conventional at heart—a guy-meets-girl story—and if you're hungry for genuine strangeness, the predictability will show.

Badrinath Ki Dulhania poster

Aranmanai2014

A Tamil horror-comedy that leans into practical effects and genuine creepiness while maintaining its sense of fun. It proves the template for making audiences both laugh and flinch in the same scene without feeling cynical.

But The humour is often broad, and some of the horror beats feel like they're from different films entirely.

Aranmanai poster

Pizza2014

A low-budget Tamil horror-thriller about a man investigating his wife's infidelity through a hidden camera, which goes to genuinely dark places. It's ambitious genre work that doesn't apologise for its premise or its low budget.

But The found-footage framing is disorienting, and the film's moral universe is uncomfortable in ways that aren't always intentional.

Pizza poster

Beetlejuice1988

Both centre on a morally flexible protagonist whose con-artist skills meet their match when supernatural forces turn the tables. Both are funny because the lead is too clever for their own good.

Tim Burton's dead-world comedy where a swindling ghost is the protagonist, not the obstacle. It's visually baroque in a way Massu isn't, but the structural DNA is identical: a charming liar encounters something from beyond that forces a reckoning.

But The visual style is so distinctive it can feel dated or stagey if you're expecting naturalism, and the humour is sometimes too strange to land.

Beetlejuice poster

Soodhu Kavvum2013

Both are films about flawed men in escalating situations that blur comedy and threat. Both trust that audiences can laugh at characters while remaining genuinely invested in what happens to them.

A Malayalam black-comedy thriller about incompetent criminals plotting a kidnapping. It's tense and genuinely funny in the same breath, tonally restless in a way that feels deliberate and earned. Proof that Indian cinema excels at this specific mode.

But The humour emerges from morally corrupt situations, and if you need to like your protagonists, this will feel cruel rather than comic.

Soodhu Kavvum poster

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Bhooloham, Aambala