Bhoot
I saw Bhoot recently, and I have to admit that I was a tad disappointed. Though it is still one of the best horror movies made in India, I was expecting more from Ram Gopal Verma.
To give credit to Ramu, the movie was tightly edited, with excellent sound effects, and great camerawork. The pace never slackened, and the audience is always kept on tenterhooks, never knowing what will pop onto the screen suddenly. The story came straight to the point, with no side plots.
But halfway through the movie, the unpredictability vanishes. As soon as we get a hint that Urmila might be possessed by Manjit, who had mysteriously died in the same apartment, we know that it is a story of "rightful" revenge, and that there are no evil forces at play here. Then onwards, we are always sure that as soon as revenge has been extracted, the ghost will leave Urmila alone.
In my view, this seriously hampers the film. It was really an attempt to startle the audience with wierd camera angles, and sudden sounds. The main storyline was as lame as a duck.
I am reminded of another Hindi film about the supernatural, Aks. This film was not as well made as Bhoot. But the basic storyline was excellent. The end, where the evil spirit is shown to have survived in another body, had a chilling message "You can never end Evil".
I wonder how Ram Gopal Verma would have handled the story of Aks. I bet it would have made a very entertaining and spooky film.