A working couple - a lone kid – new house – strange incidents – haunted mansion - The plot of VS (VAASTU SHASTA) in a nut-shell.
Does THE OTHERS come to your mind? Or Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING?
VS’s script reminds you of these movies and of BHOOT, if you haven’t seen the Hollywood ones. That’s not where it stops, some scenes like when the maid (Rasika Joshi) turns a ghost and is sitting in the bedroom is a straight lift from the ‘closet’ scene from THE RING(The English version of the famous Japanese RINGU)
Nevertheless the movie is not boring, it doesn’t drag (to nitpick - except in a single scene where Radhika and Murali are in the mansion alone.. doing what, well…)
VS manages to create a creepy feeling but doesn’t spook the daylights out of you, except in about two scenes that sent chills down my spine. One, when Radhika (Peeya) is getting home late in the night and the other when Jhilmil sees a man standing at the door. (As a horror flick I would expect more of such scenes)
What also works for VS are the neat visual effects (Bollywood’s going the Hollywood way), the innovative use of camera angles excellent background score and slick editing that binds the movie together.
Young Rohan (Ahsaas Channa) is the best performer in the film followed by the maturing Sushmita Sen. Chekravarthy, I thought is a better actor then he’s performed and Peeya/Purab play themselves and are okay.
I’ve heard people talk about why VS doesn’t talk about the origin of the ghosts – I believe that it’ the directors prerogative to choose what story he wants to tell (In this case it leaves scope for a prequel/sequel). Yes, I would have expected the story to tell me why the stance of the kid ghosts changed overnight with Rohan - from being friendly to being angry.
That apart, there are some loose knots in the plot, like why was it ever named VAASTU SHASTRA? Was it because you shouldn’t have a banyan tree in your mansions vicinity according to VAASTU or is it a pun at VAASTU since Jhilmil (Sushmita Sen) say’s ‘Oh this is perfect VAASTU’? Whatever the reason the director thinks we would figure it – I didn’t.
VS is a great on technical fronts but a good horror flick doesn’t just stop at being non-boring, it HAS TO be SPOOKY.
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I intend to write crisp reviews - your comments are welcome.