Direction: Vikram Bhatt
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Bipasha Basu, Esha Gupta
Rating: **
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Bipasha Basu, Esha Gupta
Rating: **
What do film stars with waning mojos do when they fail to
win awards? Swig whisky on the rocks and wallow in self pity? Raaz 3’s
megalomaniac, mantra-reciting, tacky-costume-wearing heroine – Shanaya (Bipasha
Basu) – plays out those clichés, in front of a giant photograph of herself no
less, before she seeks out the devil. But instead of the sell-your-soul-for-wishes
route, she walks the twisted path – spook out the new girl (Esha Gupta as
Sanjana) who’s taking your place. Totally foolproof plan, if there were just
two actresses left in the world. Then again, logic and character motivation aren’t really the
cornerstones of a Vikram Bhatt directorial. So, the “aatma” called Tara Dutt (a
too-much-kohl-wearing Manish Choudhary) agrees to help her for no apparent
reason. Maybe he runs a dial-an-aatma service, who knows? After reciting some
gibberish that sounds vaguely Arabic, he hands her a jar of evil water that
will be Sanjana’s nemesis.
But the water must be given by a “bharose-wala aadmi”. Enter
Bhatt boy Emraan Hashmi, who’s made a career out of kissing and effortlessly
seducing on-screen babes. This time he is film director Aditya who seems to aid
Shanaya in her evil plan in exchange for sex. In one of the most
unintentionally funny moments in the film, Shanaya takes her shirt off, stands
over him, and with the camera focused on her assets, asks him to look into her
eyes. Right.
With the evil water administered, the horror finally begins:
Sanjana has nightmares where voices and choking hands come out of the TV (The
Ring, anyone?); she is chased by a clown in an empty studio; and a domestic
help drives giant shards of glass into her own body. The theory of the water
causing hallucinations would be perfectly credible. But logic is killed and
hanged from a fan when Aditya also sees the paranormal forces.
It all goes downhill from there, with love, revenge and blackmail
mixed up with aatma-rescuing priests, phone-using zombies (yes, here they
speak) and a Matrix-like world of spirits you can go in and out of. At one
point, it feels like someone put the script for another Murder sequel in the
blender with horror set pieces.
But you might forgive all of this in a horror film with
impressive visual effects and scary make-up. Unfortunately, the grunting ghost covered
in maggots belongs in a Ramsay Brothers franchise (they had less technical help
in the ’80s) and the CGI appear dated. The 3D is up to the mark (it’s not the
dark, upconverted variety), but just ends up taking the tackiness to another level,
literally.
As usual, Bipasha gets to show more skin than acting
prowess, but is startlingly better than Esha, who competes with cleavage but
forgets to emote altogether. Add to that every available cliché in the book –
Ganpati to the rescue, ganga jal as a weapon – and it’s more likely to scares
you away than scare you.
