Vikram Bhatt has had a very inconsistent graph as far as his movies are concerned he delivered some amazing movies like - Raaz, 1920, Kasoor and some utterly pathetic movies like - Aap mujhe Acche Lagne lage and Shaapit! However he is back with a bang with Haunted. The movie has a lot of shortcomings to which we will come back to later.
The best part about "Horror Genre" is that you don’t necessarily need big stars to sell the film the only condition for it to be a success is that it should be scary enough and the pace of the film should be fast. As far as the promos of this film are concerned when I first saw them I knew one thing for sure this movie is going to be a sure shot dud. Neither the lead pair nor the plot sounded interesting to me, and the 3D thingy never attracted me much, but yes all said and done I did judge the book by it’s cover which I shouldn’t have and am pleasantly surprised that the movie is not all that bad!
The plot -
The plot of the movie is what makes this movie a little bit different from other Horror movies. I wouldn’t want to break the suspense of the movie, however unlike other horror flicks which opens the mystery either in the climax or the pre-climax of the movie, in this one the mystery is broken right after 15-20 mins of the movie. I won’t write much about the plot orelse it would just ruin the movie viewing experience. All I can say is Rehan (Mahakshay a.k.a Mimoh Chakroborthy) has come to sell of a old mansion which was probably built in the early 1930’s, but he discovers that there is some secret about the mansion which is so dreadful that one can’t bear even the thoguht of it. What is that thing? Will he ever be able to know what the truth is? That is what will make you watch Haunted.
Direction - This movie is supposed to be India’s first steroscopic 3D film. However technically the movie looks a bit tacky at times, I’m not a huge 3D film fan any which ways found the 3D effects nothing that great. However I would say this is definitely Vikram’s one of the finest works, you can clearly see that he has really worked hard to keep his on the edge of their seats for most of the duration of the film. Also I couldn’t help but notice that the plot of the movie is very similar to a real life haunted story that was showcased in the show "Haunting" which is aired on Discovery channel.
Music - There was no need for songs at all in this movie. And none of the songs in the movie are such that you would even humm forget singing.They could have been easily edited out which would have really helped the movie a lot considering horror movies are supposed to slick, fast and pacy however these songs just distract the flow of the movie and they are not even that great and catchy which makes it even more lame and irritating when they pop out of nowhere.
Special effects - There are some really spooky scenes in the movie which will surely scare the wits out of you. And some not so flattering tacky scenes which are quite lame and evoke unintentional laughter. But all in all some of the scenes are super scary and does full justice to this genre.
Background Music - This is one of the most important aspects in a Supernatural flick , If you want the movie to click with the audience you have to make sure that the background music itself should scare the audiences even if the scene isn’t scary, and the background music of Haunted exactly does that! Some of the scenes which aren’t that scary become scary thanks to it great background sound!
Acting -
Mahaakshay a.k.a Mimoh - While watching the movie I was just wondering "Why Mimoh, Why did Vikram choose this guy?" clearly Mimoh is just plain okay, considerably better than his debut movie "Jimmy" (Yes! I have seen that horrible movie). He is not a great looker, neither is he really great in acting he is just below average or should I say average. He’s shown running several times in the movie, and he runs in such a peculiar manner that the audience would just burst out laughing whenever he would run.
Tia Bajpai - This girl is amazing. She’s a complete natural and she looks good too. To be very honest I had no expectations from her when the trailors had come out. I guess I had seen her long time ago on TV and thought she’d be either really bad in the movie or just mediocre but she turned out to be the lifeline of the movie, her performance is as good as a seasoned actor. The scenes in which she is tormented by the spirit gives you goosebumps!
Anchit Kaur - She’s great in the movie. Her scenes in the second half are the major highlights in the movie. I have always loved her performance whether in films or in TV. She’s knows her art very well.
Why should you Watch Haunted?
Well first and foremost for all those who are crazy about horror flicks you’ve gotta catch this one. Highly recommended for all horror movie fans!
Some really spooky scenes which I think have never been seen before in Indian Cinema.
For the Lead Actress of the movie. She’s pure delight on screen.
It’s high on Background score and effects which will surely fetch it some people who would absolutely watch it for the 2nd time
Why Shouldn’t you watch Haunted?
Well it’s definitely not for faint hearted people, If you hate blood, gore, violence and ofcourse spirits then please do not watch it!
If you expect the movie to be technically as good as other Hollywood movies you would be disappointed!
Also if you hate Mimoh don’t watch it as he’s present in almost the entire film and would make you cringe on your seats. Hehe
The final verdict -
Haunted starts slow but soon catches us up with the speed as the movie progress, the suspense and curiosity element is high in both the first half and the second half, the movie could have been even better had the Director chosen some better newcomer than the "Star Son". Do watch it for it’s thrills and shrieks only with condition that you don’t expect too much!