Archives 2023

The latest Hindi movie to premier on Amazon Prime Video, on 29th October 2021 being exact, is titled Dybbuk directed by Jay K who also directed the original Malayalam movie Ezra (2017) and started shooting this Hindi remake in 2019 and due to pandemic could not plan a theatrical release, selling the rights to Amazon and premiered as an Amazon Original Movie. It is a horror movie with some elements of suspense with an interesting plot. Perhaps for photographic reasons the shooting was over in Mauritius apart from a bit scene in Mumbai. The leads are Emraan Hashmi and Nikita Dutta. The film has each of the aspects of a horror flick as an overly loud background score, jump-cut scares, moving figures behind your back, an ugly face within the mirror or inside the cupboard and the majority of scary scenes that turn to be humorous inadvertently. However, the movie a little better fare compared to traditional Ramsay Brothers type or the Vikram Bhatt kind of horror thanks to its interesting plot involving a Jewish community in Mauritius and their folklore, faiths and occult practices.

The movie commences with a death of an Jewish dignitary whose house was filled with antique pieces, and then to some murder from the assistant of the antique shop while being attracted with a mysterious-looking box that’s procured in the dignitary’s house. As he opens the therapy lamp a poltergeist kind of shaking happens throughout inside closed shop and the man was supposedly tossed up against the walls and killed. The police began investigations, though the process stopped abruptly because the focus now use the lead couple who had to move bag and baggage from Mumbai to Mauritius as the husband was utilized in handle a sensitive nuclear-waste factory there for just two years. They were given an enormous bungalow with the company. The bored wife who was pondering taking on interior designing in the bungalow visited the identical antique shop and was fascinated from the antique box. She brings it home, opens it and things set out to happen. As is usual in every supernatural films the husband won’t believe till he starts experiencing and enjoying the strange happenings himself.

The plot is interesting because, a minimum of in my opinion, I never remember a Jewish community being the target of your Hindi movie in addition to hearing Hebrew or Yiddish dialogues, mercifully with subtitles, and understanding their folklore. The word ‘dybbuk’ in Hebrew or in Yiddish means a devil or an evil spirit, along with the Jews had an occult practice of imprisoning such spirits in boxes for assorted reasons and objectives. That the antique box had something evil inside was obvious from the beginning, and so the portion of suspense regarding it was missing. Yet, the plot still were built with a lot to create a scary atmosphere, suspense and tension.

The movie’s screenplay developed a mess in the potential despite the director keeping the first-hand experience of creating a tense atmosphere in the original Malayalam film that he himself directed. It is unknown if had to compromise using the demands of your Hindi filmy formula in addition to shifting the sets to picturesque Mauritius. The making of the movie looks just like an assembled computer just as if the all of the parts, frankly, scenes are intended separately after which assembled together due to which the natural flow of storytelling is missing that miserably still did not make scares and tension effective. Normally an able hero which has a sexy image Emraan Hashmi looks the same as a hired actor who just goes on doing the chores used on him for his pay package. Almost the identical relates to the heroine Nikita Dutta, although jane is not in the same bracket of celebrities like Emraan.

The police investigation could have been continued in the proper manner to link it towards the happenings while using couple in a very parallel treatment which would surely have added for the build-up of suspense and tension. As we have hinted each of the characters, except probably the roles of the Father along with the Rabbi, just pieces to become joined together by an editor, not the director. Superficial scares are also unnecessarily built like the stiff-faced housemaid who finally turned to become just a common human being. There are indeed some scary moments, nonetheless they just end then where there letting the film meander aimlessly for quite a while till the time of creating more scares comes. When the final twist in the tale comes it’s too far gone, because every one of the previous connecting scenes are not shown fully, hiding the key signs or signals which amounts to your case of cheating the crowd. Cheating can be a a part of filmmaking for a number of reasons, nonetheless it shouldn’t be too obvious and deliberately motivated.

A flashback is imposed to spell out or justify the spirit which turns out to become a clichéd romantic story ending in gore and horror. I feel it can be an opportunity lost to produce a positive addition to generate a ‘different’ horror genre in India. On the positive side the movie is technically sound in photography, the frames as well as the camera movements. The performances can’t be called powerful, because the screenplay did not allow it. Still, the movie will not bore one to let it rest midway, it compels that you glance at the entire length expecting something more, last but not least you’d feel it turned out okay for a one-time view. The reviews seem being too harsh, perhaps since the majority in the critics had seen the main film and felt utterly disappointed as the same director let them down in this remake. As is the rule one cannot ever expect sequels or prequels or remakes to match the originals, barring a number of rare exceptions in world cinema. So then, the horror genre remains mostly where it’s got been in India. Alas!

I ponder over it a cheerful accident that I found this movie titled ‘The Terminal’ (2004) directed by Steven Spielberg on a streaming platform. My surprise was beyond measure when I saw the genre developed in the details of the movie-comedy! Well, it do not need to be my ignorance about this great filmmaker; because for most of Spielberg’s bios or filmography the said movie is not highlighted or discussed even though the movie was a commercial success. ‘The Terminal’ tells a wonderful story of an character called Viktor Navorski from Easter Europe (indicating the Russian Republic) who gets to New York John F Kennedy airport on the private mission only to discover that at the same time his native (fictional) country Kakrojhia had undergone a military coup plus a new government had absorbed. Since the US was yet to identify the newest government Viktor’s passport had become invalid and the airport supervisor took away all his documents including the passport refusing to allow for him enter New York city or to get back. Viktor Navorski, played by none other than the maximum of actors Tom Hanks, cannot speak much English and experiences a number of hilarious misfortunes during his nine-month lodge at the terminal. We’ll get back to the movie a bit later.

Steven Spielberg had become children name inside US after his blockbuster ‘Jaws’ in 1975; of course, if he was still being not children name in most other countries like India his ‘Close Encounters with the Third Kind’ in 1977, ‘Raiders from the Lost Ark’ almost 30 years ago, ‘ET the Extra Terrestrial’ in 1982, his creation with the franchise ‘Indiana Jones’ from 1984 and his awesome two huge productions ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Schindler’s List’ in 1993 make him more importantly, almost money legend of world cinema. Spielberg is claimed to get probably the most commercially successful director of Hollywood till date with almost every one of his films achieving box-office hit status, critical acclaim and Academy Awards nominations and awards. He has earned three Oscars a couple of which can be as Best Director for ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998) and something Best Picture Oscar for ‘Schindler’s List’, apart from 7 nominations as Best Director. His movies have earned an unbelievable 133 Academy nominations and 34 Oscars in several categories, in addition to the BAFTA and Golden Globe awards. His other major awards include Cecil B DeMille Award and the AFI Life Achievement Award. Steven Spielberg at 74 years old now has not retired yet yet still making movies taking temporary breaks occasionally.

Watching the ‘Jaws’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ ended up a most exhilarating experience for many Indians at all like me and through such films we will view the painstaking efforts, often risking his own life inside the difficult shooting, taken with the director-no doubt whatsoever which he made his first movie experiment at the tender age of 12 thus dedicating his whole life to the art and making world cinema even more richer along with entertaining. After working for a few years inside New Hollywood era that included several Television Episodes and minor films for Universal Studios he got his game-changing burglary ‘Jaws’ in 1975 when he was just over the ages of 30. Spielberg, rightfully, refused to generate a sequel to ‘Jaws’ as those sequels produced by other filmmakers could never match the initial original that still sends shivers around the spine. He did make a sequel though for ‘Jurassic Park’ titled ‘The Lost World-Jurassic Park’ in 1997 since the writer with the original created his second book, knowning that movie seemed to be an advertisement and critical success.

It somewhat follows through the narrative above that a lot of folks always considered Spielberg as being a serious filmmaker who earned huge commercial success too for his universally appealing storytelling and dedicated efforts. We could never possibly imagine he could make a movie inside lighter genre of comedy. Perhaps, it was just an experiment with this great filmmaker, and the man did it beautifully too-getting inspired with a true event within the Paris airport, creating interesting characters including a romantic angle and erecting a tremendous filmset inside the lines from the JFK airport of New York.

Now, coming back to ‘The Terminal’, the 2-hour and 9 minutes movie does not have an individual dull moment tickling your funny bones constantly with Tom Hanks stumbling along with his brilliantly cultivated broken Russian or Bulgarian English while handling the obsessed airport supervisor, the security guards along with the various desk officials. His character gets emotionally involved too with the airhostess played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, an Indian cleaner, a woman desk official with whom a canteen boy was romantically attached and various other delightful characters and episodes. Hanks’s character Viktor helps as well a native of his region out of a tangle by his intelligent use of interpretation deceiving the aghast supervisor. The film also keeps the suspense on what exists in the tin box that Viktor frequently eliminates fondly how the supervisor who may have been bent upon doing away with him either for the police or the FBI really wants to know desperately. Such delicious elements had better be left for those who would also love to rediscover this comedy-drama movie manufactured by one of the legendary directors-producers-writers of world cinema.

Chinmay Chakravarty is really a professional specialized within the creative field with more than two decades of experience in journalistic writing, media co-ordination, film script writing, film dubbing, film & video making, control over international film festivals and editing of books & journals. Proficient in providing professional services in these related fields. Was a police officer of Indian Information Service and superannuated in the post of Director, Press Information Bureau, Kolkata in November, 2019. Published his first solo book ‘Laugh and Let Laugh’ in 2017 and his awesome second book ‘The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales’ in 2021.

The third installment in the much-celebrated ‘The Conjuring series’ along with the eighth film with the Conjuring Universe Horror Franchise-The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It-was made ready for release in September 2020, though the COVID-19 pandemic delayed it till June 2021 if it premiered in the US as well as on HBO Max simultaneously. Unfortunately, it could not be released in the Indian theatres again due to the pandemic. Since the HBO Max show-term was very short the Indian fans in the franchise are actually wondering where to watch the movie, considering the way they were thrilled and intrigued by the haunted-house stories of The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring-2 (2016) with the adored real-life pair of the paranormal investigators Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren, played brilliantly by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in all of the flicks from the trilogy plus one of the Conjuring Universe franchise movies. Finally. Amazon Prime Video started streaming this movie in the 15th of December 2021, and also the horror ‘fun’ originates roaring back in India.

As usual, the storyplot on this film too is based on a real-life court case three decades ago in which the murder accused, Arne Johnson, pleaded simple beneath the guise that ‘The Devil Made Him Do It’ while he claimed he was demonically possessed while committing the act; these kinds of defense plea is for initially inside the US court case history. Ed and Lorraine Warren testified for Arne as we were holding convinced in regards to the demonic possession and gave all their evidence with regards to captured camera images and videos. However, since this type of premise could have never the best basis, the accused was convicted and sentenced to 15-20 numerous years of imprisonment; but he got beyond jail in 5 years because of his exemplary behavior and that he married his girlfriend while still in jail. Dry court proceedings can’t ever be an apt subject for any suspense-horror flick and therefore, a fantastic storyline and a script was built across the case.

The film opens using the scariest scene with the movie and possibly one from the scariest scenes ever in horror cinema history. The scene depicts the exorcism of a young boy, maybe around 10 years of age, named David Glatzel with all the presence with the stricken family, Ed and Lorraine and also the exorcist. The chaotically horrifying developments that follow have to be watched than explained, with all the results that Ed gets hurt and it has a heart attack as the character of Arne Johnson (played by Ruairi O’Connor), boyfriend of David’s elder sister Debbie Glatzel (played by Sarah Catherine), looks into your eye area of the violent David and invites the demon to depart David and have him, which, incredibly enough, happens. To my experience of horror films this is the new twist because it raises some questions: it seems like to generate the role from the exorcists rather dubious which a demon or perhaps a ghost supposedly possesses someone which has a definite purpose therefore, why should it leave its prized victim! Anyway, it was necessary like a prologue for that reel-life Arne Johnson to take to murder someone and face trial.

As in comparison to the earlier absolutely absorbing and tension-filled two films in the trilogy the third one lacks a flow of storytelling which can be hampered by flashbacks, jerk-cuts and scenes left half-treated, jumping with other scenes after which coming back to the previous. This can be interpreted since the stylistic treatment of the director, however it does not help storytelling bearing in mind the viewers’ continued involvement. For example, Ed Warren who suffered a heart attack probably rested for around 30 days (not clearly indicated) when the demon in Arne preferred to do nothing atrocious. However, the minute Ed recovers which has a telepathic dream he communicates to Lorraine to warn the police about a impending tragedy inside house of Arne’s employer and landlord. And inevitably, Arne in a sudden burst of possessive fit murders the landlord which is arrested with the police.

Now comes the genuine turning point of the story: Lorraine, with her super intuitive and psychic powers visualizes a grim connection of the Arne’s act with all the murder and suicide of two area within the recent days. The police were yet to find the body of second girl who supposedly killed her friend in a fit from the same type of demonic possession after which committed suicide. So, for the very first time in the history in the trilogy law enforcement join the investigations with the paranormal help of Ed and Lorraine, ultimately finding the submerged body with the second girl as Lorraine leads them through a dramatically crafted and a light-n-shadow scene, eminently worth watching.

With the ‘connection’ confirmed, Lorraine and Ed revisit the house of David, and Lorraine discovers a witch’s totem in the underground chambers in the house, stuffed with rats. The angle in the occult practices are available in here, again for the very first time, and Lorraine, convinced that the bond works either way in fact it is within the process of completing a curse implying more murders, starts the hunt for your source with the evil-if it had been an evil spirit or even a devilish person with supernatural powers needs to be avoided here, lest it might be a spoiler. While the 1st half of the film is very engaging and tension-filled the second half becomes rather predictable. The climax, unfortunately, does not shock-thrill the viewers.

But the film is immensely worth watching because of the intense performances, as usual, with the couple, Wilson and Farmiga, along with the jump-scares that come you should definitely expected , nor come when expected, keeping the viewers guessing, particularly a scarily delightful scene of David jumping over a bubbling mattress just as if filled with water and after that something unexpected happening to him. The sequel, different from your other two as pointed out, reminds us of an brilliant South Korean horror-mystery-suspense flick ‘The Wailing’ of which we wrote about recently.

‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ is just not directed by James Wan who created the Conjuring Universe horror franchise regarding his Atomic Monster Productions and New Line Cinema of Warner Bros Entertainment thus completing the 20-year efforts led by Tony DeRosa-Grund and his awesome team to produce a number of films about the supernatural case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, and directing the first movie in the franchise ‘The Conjuring’ in 2013. Huge commercial success with the first venture resulted in productions of supernatural horror sequels and prequels one after the opposite: Annabelle in 2014, The Conjuring-2 in 2016, Annabelle Creation in 2017, The Nun in 2018, The Curse of La Llorona in 2019, Annabelle Comes Home in 2019 and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It in 2021; the past is directed by Michael Chaves who made his directorial debut using a franchise film, ‘The Curse of La Llorona’. The Conjuring Universe has become the other highest-grossing horror franchise in Hollywood background one in the most critically acclaimed. Almost all of the eight films have been huge commercial hits throughout the world with positive to mixed reviews. The franchise are at as soon as focusing on two more horror films-the first being titled ‘The Crooked Man’ as well as the second film’s title, stated to be a sequel to ‘The Nun’, is to be announced.

Chinmay Chakravarty is often a professional specialized within the creative field with twenty years of experience in journalistic writing, media co-ordination, film script writing, film dubbing, film & video making, control over international film festivals and editing of books & journals. Proficient in providing professional services over these related fields. Was a police officer of Indian Information Service and superannuated through the post of Director, Press Information Bureau, Kolkata in November, 2019. Published his first solo book ‘Laugh and Let Laugh’ in 2017 and his second book ‘The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales’ in 2021.