Movie Review - Haunted
The only thing which I did not like about the movie Haunted is its name! Come on, what a spineless appellation to an otherwise brilliant piece of art. Imagine calling Picassa's Guernica as 'Painted'. Silly isn't it. I would have preferred calling it something like the title song 'Sau Baras Guzare' I am writing a movie review after ages, probably years. This fact is rather straightforward, as neither do I watch movies regularly and neither do I find even the best ones worth writing anything about. However, after watching Haunted something struck me which merited some promulgation. This is regarding the immaturity of Indian audience towards the horror/supernatural genre of film making.
I have enough circumstantial and personal experience to conclusively say that in India horror/supernatural movies are viewed with two lenses. The first lens is of logic. "Kya logic hai, kuch bhi dhikhaya hai" is often the one line summary of people rushing out of the theatre after the curtain falls. The second lens is of perceived bravado. "Let's see if I get scared" or "I don't get scared" are some motives which audience take with them either for impressing the girl at hand (which is ok) or showing off among friends (which is passable) or for self gratification (which is stupid). And when people wearing both lenses watch such movies, its a complete hogwash
There is no other genre that requires as much skill, creativity and technique than the horror/supernatural. I know this because I primarily read and write about it. I wish people had some appreciation of this. The question is not wether you found it silly or scary or funny or grotesque. If you can stand and heave sighs of wow at the Taj Mahal, can you not spare a small nod of head towards such movies. After all, they are also manifestations of human art & skill.
Coming back to the movie, I found it just too good. There are some inane masala here and there to cater to the degenerated tastes of the intelligent audiences I have talked of before, but that can pass. Its a fairly long movie and hence will grow on you. The story telling is perhaps the best I have ever seen in a Hindi horror flick. Since I write stories myself, probably my degree of appreciation of the script and its plotting would certainly be much more verbose than others, so that is the qualifier which you could bear in mind while reading this hyperbole of mine. Let me try to explain nevertheless. Any horror/supernatural story will have two elements or parts in it. The first one will be the ghost, spirit, demon etc part - the concept basically. (Example - in The Ring the concept is the ghost coming out of the TV and killing whoever watches the movie). The second will be the plot which is there in almost any story (Example - The young hero, falls in love with damsel, falls in a well ...). The trick for a writer is to marry these two parts seamlessly. In my memory, never have I seen such a masterful amalgamation of the spook and the plot as in Haunted. Then, the songs and background score is really haunting. Special effects are average, one area where Bollywood is several years behind Hollywood.
I am told the reviews of Haunted are rotten. I dont know who writes these reviews but under this blog's jurisdiction Haunted gets a 4 out of 5. I shall leave it for you to decide who to listen to.
Labels: Movie Reviews
5 comments
I saw Haunted based on this review.
My girl-friend didn't like it because of the repeated vivid rape scenes shown in it which literally show everything happening from the heroine's clothes getting torn to her legs getting spread and then her screaming. Its obvious any female would want to puke after watching that and any female critic would give the movie all thumbs and toes down upon watching it. However, I feel some of those scenes are necessary to add to the story in order to make you feel the pain that she went through all those years.
Although one thing which I could never understand is that why would a ghost be sexually interested in anyone after death because sex is something which a body desires, and since he has no body.... and why did he take control of Margaret's body when he was capable of fighting them by himself (as he did in the end)? These two things are flaws, but who cares - its a horror flick, anything can happen and we need to suspend our disbelief to some extent.
What I didn't like about the movie was their attempt to make it comic at some parts. The hip-hop mechanical dance scene by the hero was pathetic. If they thought that the movie was so horrifying that they need to put some comedy in between, they are wrong. It completely kills the effort put until that point in the film in developing the hero's character and the story. You shouldn't have the audience losing all respect for what they saw so far and then just laughing. Also the attempt to give Margaret the Exorcist-girl-like look was fine but then her cycling in the air was comic.
Apart from all this, I think that the story-building and acting was one of the best I have seen in a Hindi horror flick in a long time. The first half of the film was simply fantastic - very superbly and progressively told story to tell the viewers what happened. And at least overall it was something different from the regular rape/ murder/ suicide/ revenge thing because it had him going back to the past, meeting the same old man at the dargah, the union of the 5 elements to get rid of the soul and the connection with the locket - and the best part was the change of the letter's contents.
Thanks for such a detailed and well written comment. You have raised some good points.
The rape thingy is required to build the atrocity and climate. Off course it could have been less graphic:-) But generally horror movies have always had good amount of sexuality packaged. Remember Raaz?
The part on why would a ghost be sexually interested is agreeable. Ghost literature has a particular species of ghosts called "Incubus" who are mostly female spirits haunting men for sex. They come in dreams and ravish their subjects. So thats ok.
It does get comic in between, thats the masala mirch which Indian film makers are obliged to offer.
The concepts as you mentioned in the last paragraph are indeed great. The movie has a multi layered plot.. present, past, dargah, well, locket which is what I admired a lot.
I haven't seen the movie, but reading Mayank's comments, I think I kinda got the story line. Have you seen Tabu's "Hawa" or Milla Jovovich's "The fourth kind" which has around the same story line, probably not the same? Specially "Hawa" was the worst possible role Tabu had done in her acting career.
Nope. I havent seen either Hawa or The fourth kind. I will try to if and when the opportunity comes.
the incubus is a male, by the by!
and since i am not a horror movie watcher... no comments on the movie!
but on the scale of movie reviews, this one is very very well written! :)
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