What’s the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about Bollywood horror movies? The Ramsay brothers, old deserted havelis with creaky doors, creepy looking watchmen, possessed kids, faceless woman with wild hair dressed in a white saree or scenes of car breaking down in the middle of nowhere and fog and eerie sounds etc. It’s easy to list down all the ingredients of a typical Bollywood horror movie. But thankfully over the years horror films in Bollywood have gone through a makeover. The horror movies that were released this year especially, had none of these elements listed above yet they managed to scare the hell out of us and give us nightmares.
Pari : This Anushka Sharma starrer was no fairy tale!
Anushka Sharma starrer Pari was one of the scariest movies to have released this year. While people might be criticising Anushka’s acting skills in her recently released film Zero, where she plays a wheelchair bound scientist suffering from cerebral palsy, people loved her performance in Pari.The film was unlike any of the stereotypical horror films we have watched in the past. Firstly the film was titled Pari meaning fairy but there was nothing fairy like in the film, it was one of the most chilling films to be made in the history of Hindi cinema. Pari is about a disoriented girl Rukhsana (Anushka Sharma) who is given shelter by Arnab (Parambrata Chatterjee) after his car runs over an old woman. But there is more to this lonely, sad and innocent looking girl and her story. Behind that innocent face is someone that can scare the daylights out of you!
Stree: There was nothing feminine about this stree
Another horror film that was completely different was the Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi starrer Stree. Though the film has comedy and lightheartedness to it, it still manages to scare you. The film is based on a true story about Nale Ba in Bangalore aka Bengaluru where apparently a witch used to roam the streets preying on men who were out on the streets late in the night. Legend says that she would even go knocking on people’s doors and if at all any men opened the door then there was no saving them from her. Nale Ba apparently means “Come tomorrow.” In Stree the movie too the dialogue “ Stree tum kal aao” has been used. The film was highly appreciated and so were the actors and there are talks about a sequel being made soon.
Tumbbad: This is what greed does to humans
I watched most of Tumbbad by covering me eyes! It was one of the scariest movies I watched this year and a film that managed to give me nightmares. This psychological thriller was gory beyond words. Tumbbad is named after a coastal village in Maharashtra where it rains all year round. The film redefined the horror genre in Bollywood. There is a lot of blood and gore in the film that has been wonderfully shot and executed. The film is a mythology about a demon god called Hastar. There is a message for all humans in the film about what greed can do to us. Tumbbad is certainly not one for the weak hearted.
They says that the best form of horror is one where there is the fear of the unknown and one which plays with your mind and all three of these films certainly do that!
