When Vikram Bhatt broke away from the happily ever after tropes of Bollywood to carve the horror terrain, it was a novelty. 12 years later his “Raaz” has become ridiculously simplistic…a kind of kindergarten for the seekers of chills and frills that feeds on the appetite of the galleries for shock and sleaze.
Taking a break from the existing shapes of ghosts in Hindi cinema’s folklore, this week Vikram has created a new creature but fails to impart any character to it. It seems like a human who has developed strong reptilian features but it remains a work in progress. He tries to generate curiosity about it by revealing its body parts but even after killing a dozen people the predator fails to catch one’s imagination. What we get to know is that it clears its throat before attacking and like most other ghosts it can take on the bullets but fears fire. Its mythical back-story doesn’t hold. It would have been better if he had cast an animal that we know. Lack of budget could justify the lack of finesse in the VFX and 3D but there is no excuse for the flimsy writing where he cuts and paste scenes from his previous horror flicks. A villager who warns against the attack, a corrupt forest officer who is not ready to accept the existence of a new beast, a honeymoon couple who becomes the diet of the creature, the staples have long crossed their expiry date. The intrinsic logic cease to work after the hunters manage to bring the Creature into an empty bus but instead of blowing up the vehicle they wait for the beast to come out so that they can shoot him down.
Beneath the elements of horror, Vikram is known to imbue the narrative with a twisted heart with music bringing in the depth. No such luck here as he repeats himself with disdain. Ahana (Bipasha Basu) opens a forest lodge in Himachal Pradesh to fight her inherent fears. But soon a beast starts to snare her patrons. The forest officials believe that it is a leopard but Vikram tells us that it is a Brahma Rakshas set free by deforestation for development. Ahana is joined in her fight by Kunal (Imran Abbas), who is grappling with the guilt of his past. It could have been an interesting interplay of fears within and without but what we get to endure is a listless screenplay and pedestrian performances. Imran is more wooden than the jungle and it is left to Bipasha to liven up the proceedings not realising that in the season of female protagonists, she has been sold a dummy.