The movie *Maya* begins with a familiar horror setup. An artist, Vasanth Sridhar, recounts to his friend a ghost story he’s illustrating—a tale of Maya, a spirit haunting those who summon her from within Mayavanam forest, where an asylum once stood. When the skeptical friend tests this by calling out her name, a shadowy figure appears on screen, initially dismissed as a prank. However, another character later points …