Horror and humoristic ventures require out of the ordinary plot, unpredictable narrative and transfixing scenes. In case you manage to get hold of all three, a triumph is highly evident but majority of the projects hit a dead end right at the start due to an ideal mismatch of these three ingredients.
The newest release starring Bipasha Basu, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Doyel Dhawan is weaved around a intrepid and prevailing concept (something new to Bollywood) but clearly lacks the spellbinding touch that the storyline based on haunted argument demands. Suparn Verma, in his 1 ½ hour long psychological thriller tried to submit few spine-chilling scenes but couldn’t somehow manage to persuade the audience that they were actually frightened during the show.
Story:
[box type=”tick” size=”large” style=”rounded” border=”full”] It is a story of a mother (Maya Verma) who is distressed because of her little girl (Nia). The child communicates with her departed father (Abhay Verma) who comes back from the world of dead out of her overly extended love for her. Abhay used to be an abusive and suspicious husband who harassed his wife habitually. She files for divorce after 7 long years of their marriage and seeks custody of their only child. One day, the news breaks that Abhay is no more after he meets a lethal accident. When all was set for an unruffled life ahead for Maya, the hell breaks out for her and series of nightmares begin. Abhay enters the life once again with an objective to take her daughter back to his world only to be confronted by the courageous mother. [/box]
Analysis:
The movie exhales a virgin storyline that has been untouched before, at least in Bollywood. However, a faintly similar concept was last observed in Hollywood in the name of “Poltergeist” but the correspondence is only apparent.
Kudos to the filmmaker for trying his hands at something new-fangled, diverse than what Bhatt camp has been dishing out for past many years. Although, they plug their loopholes with a gleaming music that Aatma can’t boast about.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a radiant actor who acted to his best but remains utterly unused except for few scenes. His break-down sequences are absolutely sparkling. Bipasha looks stunning without make-up and performed decently after her last venture based on haunted theme—“Raaz 3”.
The girl child (Doyel) is too adorable and plays her part with the earnestness of a child.
Jaideep Ahlawat, Darshan Zariwala, Mohan Kapoor and Shernaz Patel have pitched in with upright performances to justify their space in the movie.
Nevertheless, the movie lacks real-frightening scenes barring few before interval. The sole raison d’être could be attributed to these two points:
[box type=”tick” size=”large” style=”rounded” border=”full”]– The director didn’t desire to create a typical Ramu Kaka styled flick and wanted situational horror to creep in through on its own but forgot to let the windows open.
— At the same time, the scenes where teacher is frightened by the “Aatma” in school and “havan” sequence by an emblematic Panditji of archetypal B-grade Bollywood cinema attaches a soupçon of absurdity than anything else.[/box]
It goes undefined why Abhay is suspicious of his wife. The home interiors don’t match up the storyline and are too brightly decorated. This also dwindles down haunting effect on audience. Conversely, the cinematography by Sophie Winqvist is well executed and deserves admiration.
We should not forget that the movie is not all about scaring hell out of people but something out of box that hasn’t been experimented ever before. The movie deserves accolades for trying something imaginative but indubitably lacks a bloodcurdling soul.
[box type=”note” size=”large” style=”rounded” border=”full”] The movie gets 2 ½ on the scale of 5 from Hillpost. [/box]
A mechanical engineering graduate with a post graduation in marketing and sales, Ashish has combined professional experience of more than 4 years.
Ashish is a great fan of Martin Scorsese. He loves to write poetry in his spare time.
He lives in Shimla.
