Don’t know about society, but the ghost world is getting increasingly secular. After a Muslim spirit in Pari , we have a Jewish soul looking for a host to seek revenge in this remake of a Malayalam flick. Instead of the Cross, here it is the Khamsa locket that keeps the evil at bay.
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Another novelty is that the onus of carrying the spirit, is not just on the female lead anymore. The hero also shares the burden, raising hope for gender justice in the horror space. Instead of Nikita Dutta, it is Emran Hashmi who gets under the shower!
Apart from these seemingly out-of-the-box moves, the film follows the manual: dogs identify the spirit, the possessed go for a night walk, and mirrors are meant to be smashed. It seems director Jay K is inspired by the Vikram Bhatt school that loves to set up its spook fests in Colonial-era bungalows. Such settings alienate the common man as he watches the fear of the protagonists as an outsider. And if the protagonists are an inter-faith couple living in a haunted house, it plays on the myth that such matches are jinxed.
Sam (Hashmi) and Mahi (Dutta) are one such couple that shifts to one such mansion in Mauritius. Sam is an expert in dumping nuclear waste and Nikita is trying to get over a miscarriage. There are inane lines like Mahi telling Sam that she wants to dress up the bungalow according to the heritage theme. Anyway, she buys an antique box which turns out to be a dybbuk, containing a human spirit according to the Jewish folklore. The setting allows the spirit to roam around and director Jay K to play the tricks. However, he spends too much time on explaining the origins of the ghost and the Jewish tradition, making the audience wait for the next scare. Perhaps, the idea is to reach out to those who find Aahat scary, without ignoring the technical know-how of those who gorge on The Conjuring.
The sincerity of the filmmaker in addressing the science vs. logic bit is palpable, but the predictable storyline and the cliched backstory make it a long wait till the climactic twist.
Emran is in familiar territory and simply sails through the working vacation in Mauritius. Manav Kaul tries hard to make the ghost-busting Rabbi believable. So does Denzil Smith as the Father. One relates the most with Nikita. With two-and-a-half expressions, it is hard to guess whether she is scared or appalled by the intrinsic logic of the film.
Dybukk is currently streaming on Amazon Prime
