Despite my intro to his work being the 2007 movie which would lead to him getting the "badge of honour" of being the first Bollywood director to have a film on the IMDb's "bottom 100" list, I have always been interested in taking a look at the films of Ram Gopal Varma,due to him being a director whose chosen genres seem to be at odds with the current trends taking place in Bollywood.
Having had some trouble on deciding where to start with his films,I was thrilled to discover a movie of his,which sounded like a Bollywood Giallo!
View on the film:
For his wonderfully stylized directing, Ram Gopal Varma cleverly creates a Horror "character" that almost everyone can relate to,thanks to Varma taking full advantage of the terrific,brightly lit Dario Argento's Suspiria (also reviewed) style set design by Karm Singh which allows Varma to show the house filled with vast empty spaces,that are strangely filled with some unexplained "creaking" sounds that help to send a shiver down the spine.
Along with the set design,Varma also includes a number of spooky winding staircases shots and also makes the conversations that the un- named woman has from the peephole with Sameer A. Purnavale (played by a wonderfully creepy Manoj Bajpai) feel very claustrophobic,thanks to the only light in the scenes coming from the "unknown" that the terrifying Sameer A. Purnavale is standing behind.
Although the fantastic screenplay by Anurag Kashyap only features five characters (and that's including the cute little fur ball!), Kashyap impressively stops the film from feeling "stagy" thanks to mixing a creeping paranoia mood that gets its grip tight round the characters and also having the films shocking twists established in a subtle way right at the start of the film,to only be slowly unraveled as the tension in the film starts to reach a truly nerve wrecking point.
Whilst the Giallo-style twist ending can be seen as a bit of a rug-puller,the excellent performance by Urmila Matondkar really helps it to just about be pulled off,thanks to her making the woman feel like someone,who whist terrified about the events taking place around her,is also someone hiding a secret burred deep within herself.
Having had some trouble on deciding where to start with his films,I was thrilled to discover a movie of his,which sounded like a Bollywood Giallo!
View on the film:
For his wonderfully stylized directing, Ram Gopal Varma cleverly creates a Horror "character" that almost everyone can relate to,thanks to Varma taking full advantage of the terrific,brightly lit Dario Argento's Suspiria (also reviewed) style set design by Karm Singh which allows Varma to show the house filled with vast empty spaces,that are strangely filled with some unexplained "creaking" sounds that help to send a shiver down the spine.
Along with the set design,Varma also includes a number of spooky winding staircases shots and also makes the conversations that the un- named woman has from the peephole with Sameer A. Purnavale (played by a wonderfully creepy Manoj Bajpai) feel very claustrophobic,thanks to the only light in the scenes coming from the "unknown" that the terrifying Sameer A. Purnavale is standing behind.
Although the fantastic screenplay by Anurag Kashyap only features five characters (and that's including the cute little fur ball!), Kashyap impressively stops the film from feeling "stagy" thanks to mixing a creeping paranoia mood that gets its grip tight round the characters and also having the films shocking twists established in a subtle way right at the start of the film,to only be slowly unraveled as the tension in the film starts to reach a truly nerve wrecking point.
Whilst the Giallo-style twist ending can be seen as a bit of a rug-puller,the excellent performance by Urmila Matondkar really helps it to just about be pulled off,thanks to her making the woman feel like someone,who whist terrified about the events taking place around her,is also someone hiding a secret burred deep within herself.