I have watched the noon show of ?Vaastu Shastra?. I was supposed to be scared, trembling and shivering in my boots. Right ? The only feelings I can recognize are irritation and impatience.
What?s with Ram Gopal Verma ? Can?t he get over his ?Bhoot? hangover ? Agreed that ?Bhoot? was a great hit. I personally loved it and watched it at least thrice. Bhoot had a great story, fantastic performances and superb camera and sound effects. But does that mean he has to repeat the plot and everything else in every subsequent movie he produces ? And worse, he cannot even make do a good job out of copying his own masterpiece.
This time, we have Sushmita Sen in place of Urmila and Chakravarthy in place of Ajay Devgan. Now they shift into a new home (where have I heard this before ?) As they are moving lock, stock and barrel, the camera angles go haywire, sound effects go bonkers and the general atmosphere of dread and terror emanates.
The only change is a little boy (Ahsaas) as their child and a bargad tree in their courtyard from which a creaking swing hangs. Otherwise, everything else remains identical. The lovemaking between the couple in the night while the bhoot watches, the getting up and walking in the night while the bhoot stares, the creaks, the screeches, the screams ? everything?s the same.
Or is it ? Sadly, that thing which people call ?quality? has gone down several notches.
Let?s face it, RGV, you may have had a fallout with your pet muse, Urmila but that?s entirely your loss. Sushmita is a terrific actress, one of my favourites, but guys, she is no Urmila. Urmila looked vulnerable and sweet and really frightened out of her wits. Sushmita looks too tough to be frightened of anything, including ghosts who pitter-patter in her palatial home. She towers over evryone, including the ghosts and looks like she has had enough of that nonsense.
And Chakravathy Bhai, you are no Ajay Devgan. I can never forget the priceless expression on Ajay?s face when he discovers his wife possessed by bhoot and here we have Chakravarthy, looking like he is sleep walking through the role. He sits and stares at his lap top in most of the scenes, looks puzzled at the strange sounds in his new home and wakes up in the end only to be killed off in one stroke. Ho...hum.
And what about the ghosts themselves ? Boring, morose and sleepy. Manjeet was a superb ghost with her blazing, piercing eyes. However, the ghosts in this flick did not bring out a shudder from me. I sighed, I yawned and I even snickered. Hardly the expressions I was hoping to have during a horror movie.
The sound effects are great but are too many and the sense of timing goes haywire. I mean there were so many false alarms that when the actual fright happened after mucho shrill creaks, I had lapsed into daydreaming. Or digging into my popcorn .
And pray, where is the story ?
What in the world is going on ?
Why are the ghosts killing everybody in sight ?
And what happens in the end ?
I?m clueless. When the movie ended, I was still sitting there with a puzzled look on my face. The climax is that confusing.
The only redeeming factor of this flick is Ahsaas, the little four-year old who befriends the ghosts in the first half of the movie and then mischievously refuses to reveal anything more. I kept thinking that he probably knew something that he did not tell even the film director and maybe that is the reason we are all feeling cheated in the end. He is that believable and that good.
So check out this movie only for the sake of this little tyke. The rest is well? a sad remake of Bhoot.