I caught Vaastu Shastra on the first day (though not the first show) and I was scared. I was really spooked. I, who have remained unshaken through all the Friday the 13s and the Omens and the Evil Deads, was spooked. That in itself is commendable.
RGV strikes an encore. Like a magician extracting a rabbit from a top hat, he extracts great directors. All of them different, but outstanding nonetheless. It all began with E. Nivas with the brilliant Shool, then Prawaal Raman with Darna Mana Hai, Chandan Arora with Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon and now, Saurabh Usha Narang with Vaastu Shastra.
If there were any set boundaries for horror films, Narang pushes them forward. There is no attempt to explain the ghosts, there is no victory at the end for the human race and terror wins. Unlike the pale (in comparison) Bhoot and the insipid Raat, there is no removal of grisly make-up from the face and a gorgeous Sushmita Sen appearing again after the climax. There is no sense of triumph.
It all begins when the Rao family of Virag (Chakravarty) and Jhilmil (Sushmita) plan to purchase a house on the Pune-Saswade highway. Everything is Vaastu perfect, barring a gnarled monstrous tree in front of the house. The first half is all about how the family peoples the house. The other people in the family are Radhika (Peeya Roy Chawdhry), who is Jhilmil?s sister and the couples? child Rohan (played brilliantly by Ahsaas Channa, who must be less than 10 years old). The supernatural elements slowly begin to occur, but they being discernible only to little Rohan, are quickly refuted as childish imaginations. This adds to the eeriness of the film, as the viewer can perceive the imminent danger the child is in.
Post-interval, things begin to happen. The ghosts come out all at once. They loiter about in the house and do ?ghost-like? things. They stand by the bedside of sleeping people and bop them from behind and spook them from the window. In retrospect when you think of these happenings, you will be scared.
I wouldn?t divulge more than this of the plot. However, even if you know the story, it is a movie to be experienced. Two sequences stand out in the film. Both are killing sequences. The first is of the bai (played by Rasika Joshi), who gives evil a new definition through her role and the second is the predictable but bone-chilling murder of Radhika. Sample this: When Radhika and her boyfriend Murli (played by VJ Purab) are engaged in love-making, Murli is secretly snatched from the bed and Radhika is left alone.
The climax is frustrating, and to an extent even unbelievable. The ghosts who are too quick for the eye, for no reason become lethargic in killing Jhilmil. That gives Jhilmil enough time to indulge in some climactic manouvres. By the way, there is no tantrik or even a psychiatrist in the film.
Two points of the movie irritated me, though. One is the bullet like sound effect that is there at the end of each sequence in the first half. It disappears in the second half. The second drawback is more irritating. Till the end of the film, I was wondering why the film was named Vaastu Shastra in the first place. Except one dialogue by Sushmita, there is nothing of the Vaastu factor in the film. In fact, the viewers were bemused as to whether the film was pro-Vaastu or anti-Vaastu. There is no moral at the end, which is present even in a horror film.
However, the pluses grossly overweigh the minuses. The acting is top aces. Sushmita is as usual non pareil, and Chakravarty, who has nothing to do except keep a serious and somewhat spooked face throughout also excels. But the surprise package is the child, Ahsaas Channa, who chills you with his conversations with invisible ghosts in the first half. Its like he summons help from the supernatural to shatter the myth that children are vulnerable. The character cast is also excellent. The shriek by the actor in the opening sequence is a classic and Peeya?s facial convulsion of fear when she finds out that she is being stalked by a ghost in her house is nothing less than masterly.
As in every horror film, the sets are the main characters and more so in a film revolving around a house. The claustrophobic, mood lighting, though not natural-seeming adds to the ambience. There is nary a tube light in the house, only dim powered bulbs; though there is a Compaq; and that is jarring.
But what the heck, it?s the best horror film made in India yet. Even with all its loopholes (which supernatural film doesn?t have them), it rises above all clichés in the genre and makes worth-watching. What with M. Night Shyamalan out there and RGV very much here, the spook-fest continues?