Afterthoughts
How was that! I personally enjoyed the movie, but more in the first half than the second. I think one of the things they did right was creating a creepy atmosphere. There were lots of weird little touches that made it nice and eerie - the unfamiliarity of a new home, the way Bai would act, things the watchman would do, etc. All of the night scenes where Swati was up by herself also lent themselves well to making people jumpy. They did a nice job of making the audience feel at least some of the unease that Swati was feeling, and that helped sell it to me.
However, it was once Swati was full-on possessed that it seemed to lose it's creepiness with me. I think what made the first half so punishing was that we were identifying with Swati, and sympathizing with her. Once she was completely hellish, we are (I guess) supposed to switch our allegiance to Vishal, who up until that point hadn't really done anything to cheer about. Still though, it wasn't a bad movie by any means. It was quite well made from a technical point of view, and it was indeed very spooky for a good bit of the time, so hats off for that too. As a nice touch, it was relatively bloodless as well. Of course the only time we really see much it's pooling around the head of a dead child, which we should all know by now is not one of the things I particularly enjoy seeing.
Urmila
Matondkar (Swati) was the glue that held the movie together. She was
consistently good through the whole show, and I'm not just saying that because
she's a favorite of mine. She was very credible as a frightened victim, and
downright menacing once she got the claws out. As enjoyable as ever, Ms.
Matondkar. However, I never want to see you look like this again:
Ajay Devgan (Vishal) was fine. I didn't have a problem with his acting at any point. I did have problems with his character, particularly in the first half of the movie when he was so dismissive of Swati's worries and concerns. Plus he calls her "stupid," which ticked me off. Otherwise, a fine job.
Nana Patekar (Qureshi) was an odd duck for this movie. He was actually (as far as I can tell) taking on the part of the comic relief. He was the only one in the movie that had any humor at all, which is strange for him. Granted I've only seen him a couple of times, but he seems to do the "hardcore spine of steel" routine quite well. I was also happy to see that I in no way hated him in this movie. Mr. Patekar and I got off to a rocky start, but I think we'll be fine as long as he keeps his distance from Manisha.
Rekha (Sarita) seemed kind of underutilized. From my limited historical knowledge of Bollywood, I do know this much - she's been around in the industry since the 70's and had quite a string of hits with Amitabh Bachchan. To put her to work in this film where she mostly spent her screen time glaring at people and looking kind of spooky seems like they weren't really capitalizing on who they had. Ah well, she still looks great (sometimes the scary look works, what can I say) and did what she had to do very well.
Negatives:
As mentioned in the prelude, there was a definite sense of familiarity with some of the material. Elements of several well-known horror movies were on display here, and it just bugged me a little. Not a huge issue, but, you know.
Another movie using a dead child for shock value. Well, it worked. Didn't need to go that far though.
While some might argue that the lack of song and dance scenes might be a plus for a horror movie, I was really hoping to see some. That would have seriously jacked up the surreal nature of some of the scenes, and would have had me hooked. Or it might have looked like Michael Jackson's Thriller video. Either way, it's a win.
I'm not sure what happened with the old silent chanting woman in Thakkar's apartment. Either something got cut out, or the subtitles left out an explanation of who she was. We see her a few times acting rather strange, and that's it.
Positives:
A well-constructed spooky atmosphere for a good bit of the movie. Putting us ill-at-ease was their goal, and they hit the mark.
Urmila's performance really shone in this movie. She was convincing at all times, and that's what we want. Plus she can make every single cord in her neck stand out when she needs to, and man that's scary!
They kept the narrative pretty tight. This one clocks in under two hours (just barely), and it didn't feel like they were ever padding it out to up the running time. The movie held its momentum well, which is important for a good suspense movie.
Bollywood zombies! I don't get to see many of those, so they were a treat. I picked the theater scene as the teaser for this move for that reason alone!
It was clear immediately that there could only be one symbol powerful enough to act as the ratings icon for this film. That power belongs to:
Bhoot (2003)
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(Out of 5) | |
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(Out of 5) |
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