If, as one leaves the theatre after watching a horror movie, one is annoyed and yet feels like laughing, something must be pretty odd about the movie. This is one movie that leaves the audience with mixed emotions – but it is not a particulalry pleasant mix of emotions.
After a series of spooky films like Raaz, 1920 and Shaapit, Vikram Bhat‘s latest attempt to make a horror film with 3D-effects turns out to be a scare-free horror movie. It is spooky just in the sense that, for a horror movie, it has nothing to boast by way of horror. That’s the horror about this horror movie! How horrid! No storyline worth mentioning, no notable action, lacksustre performances, insipid climax, irritating, painful background music: well these are not the things that leave an impact on the audience – not a pleasing impact at least.
This punishing movie protracts the torture through all of 2 hours 15 minutes; the movie leaves one with a remarkably strong longing to get the hell out of the theatre as soon as possible.
Though it’s very hard to judge acting talent in a film (or a non-film, if you please!) like this, Mahaakshay (previously Mimoh) does seem to have tried valiantly to act but falls woefully short of the acceptable requirement. Pehaps he should sit down with dear dad Mithun Chakraborty for some possibly useful advice. Beautiful Tia has does seem to have some histrionic talent but it does need to be honed enough to ensure her lasting presence in the film industry; else it won’t be long before she joins the long line of pretty women who have sunk and slunk into oblivion despite their lovely looks.
The much-touted 3D-effects are, to some limited extent, the saving grace in this horror (of a) movie. Vikram Bhatt seems to have opted for special effects keeping the desi (read ‘mass’) audience in mind, and that is the only reason why it has created some buzz; but then, media do routinely indulge in some hype, don’t they? It is a safe bet, a bet that doesn’t require a brilliant mind or a particulalry ‘lucky hand’, that the theatres would be empty enough after the first week for the managements to repair creaky chairs without annoying anybody in the audience.
Experiencing horror (we mean the horror whcih has been sought to be portrayed) in 3D is indeed a novel experience for the audience; however the absence of an underlying plot makes it an experience they would have chosen to go without had they known what had been in store for them.
To be fair, the special effects are awesome in a few scenes like those when a snake spews forth its venom at the audience or a hurtling brick just about misses the spectator’s nose. If the movie did have a modicum of what makes a tolerable movie, the special effects would have catapulted the movie to a fair degree of fame and not many would have complained about the money spent on popcorn and the tickets or the time spent in transporting oneself to the theatre (and back – not to forget!) or watching the movie.
Despite some spiffy 3D effects, ‘Haunted’ is a very ordinary film – and we are being very charitable as we say that.
The movie can be given the wide berth without a second thought. One stands forewarned but, as always, one can always indulge in a little bravado!
Producer & Director: Vikram Bhatt
Cast: Mahaakshay (Mimoh), Tia Bajpai, Achint Kaur, Mohan Kapur
