Am I the only one who did not enjoy this movie? It is not that my expectations were sky high, but I did hope for something better than what I saw. And believe me, I really wanted to like this movie.
Disclaimer: I am not a horror movie afficionado but I do enjoy a good horror/scary movie in a while (case in point: Identity, a watchable flick).
Not that it would be fair to compare Hollywood movies to the Bollywood ones considering the abominable stuff that is being churned out, but this is how the plot goes:
An upwardly mobile couple (no pun intended), Vishal (Ajay Devgan) and Swati (Urmila) move into the twelfth floor apartment of a highrise in Mumbai without Swati knowing that a woman and her child had jumped from the balcony of that same apartment in the recent past (I was not surprised she did that considering that screechy doorbell and the nutty maid played by Seema Biswas, enough to drive anyone bonkers) . When Swati comes to know about it, she is aghast and upset with her husband (Vishal knew about it and had decided to keep it a secret). As if to justify her fears, the woman Manjeet (Barkha Madan) and her kid (a creepy Indian version of Haley Joel Osmont) prove that they are no pushovers and decide to make a reappearance and do their stuff (as if to reiterate that all ghosts have zero IQ). Throw in a smiley doll a la Childs Play and a sullen watchman AND we have RGVs ready-to-go horror movie.
Manjeet, after giving Swati a few stern glances, decides that she is good enough to be haunted. Swati starts hallucinating, sleepwalking and kills a few people too on her way to getting possessed by Manjeet. Vishal who, all the while has been watching in silent horror, decides to take some action. Only, I wish he hadnt coz that film only goes downhill from here right upto the very tame denouement. In rapid succession, Victor Banerjee (a psychiatrist with personal problems), Nana Patekar (a cop investigating a murder who keeps staring up at the building for clues), Rekha (a medium who could very well be a ghost herself), Tanuja (Manjeets mom) and Fardeen Khan(the bearded boy-next-door) flit past the screen. And the plot keeps getting dumb and dumber and dumberer...
Let me take a breather here and point out the finer aspects of the movie. The lead pair, Ajay and Urmila are uniformly excellent and even though Urmila, in the later stages of the movie pretty much reprises what Linda Blair did in the Exorcist, does a fine job. The background score, though overdone is about the only part of the movie that is scary (other than the first appearance of Manjeet after which she pretty much becomes part of the furniture). RGV does attempt something different and that alone is commendable. The setting and the screenplay are also quite refreshing by Indian horror movie standards and there are no complaints on the technical aspects of the movie.
Okay, back to the bashing ! As far as the performances go, the same cannot be said of the supporting cast. To be fair with them, their roles are limited and that is why I do not understand why such a distinguished cast was necessary. Nana Patekar gives a terribly hammy performance (was he trying to spoof James Bond? Egad!!!!) and so does Fardeen Khan, reliably so. Victor Banerjee is passable and Rekha seems to have discovered a novel way of scaring off a ghost (what was with all the lipstick????). Tanuja gets no scope to perform and Seema Biswas does a female Jack Nicholson. The plot too is replete with glaring inconsistencies and glitches and (surprise!) cliches.
Before I conclude, a comment on horror movies in general. Just because the supernatural aspect comes into the picture, does it give the director (as in this case) the licence to ride roughshod over the script? An example. Manjeet (inside Urmila) who is all-powerful as you shall see can be easily subdued by tying her to the bed with ropes!!!!!!! In fact, I ended up wondering why she possessed Urmila at all (I wont give anything away here) .....which defeated the very purpose of the movie for me.
Go rent Seven instead...or even RGVs superior Kaun if you really wish to have nightmares.
-Vishal