A horror film that unravels like a daily soap, director Debaloy Dey’s attempt at spooking you out goes in vain. The film seems to be an exercise to put Jabalpur on the Bollywood map and it partially succeeds but as a horror flick, it tests your patience. After Uday (Bhanu Uday) and Ayesha (Swara Bhaskar) shift to Jabalpur, Ayesha starts feeling the presence of supernatural elements in their big house. As expected, Uday ignores her request to shift residence and links it with the road accident that she had some time back. This gives Dey ample time to build up but instead of treating us with thrills, he tries to indulge us with some drab humour and dated drama.
The background sound prepares us for the unseen. If it is a red herring, the sound turns soft even before the completion of the event. So there is hardly any shock value except for a couple of murders where he fills the screen with blood. One doesn’t expect rationality but intrinsic logic helps. Here, the showpiece used in a gory murder is back on the wall after a couple of scenes.
The final twist does catch you off guard but by that time you could doze off many times. Swara is watchable as the mother caught in a situation but when the horror fest begins, she fails to generate the vulnerability that such roles demand. You always feel she is too sensible to get into something like this. Bhanu looks theatrical in her presence and Hemant tries to make some stile jokes sound fresh.
Genre : Horror
Cast: Swara Bhaskar, Bhanu Uday, Murali Sharma, Hemant Pandey
Bottom line: Waiting in the cans for some time, the fish is finally out in the water but lacks the gills to survive the swell at the box office
