BHOOT VS STREE

Not going to lie this was a fun review to write. Not only because I am a true fan of the fright realms, also because I wanted to show a really clear evolution of horror movies in the Indian Cinema that I actually feel has changed a lot from where it once was. 

To give a short background, the movie 'Bhoot' (Translation: ghost) , was released in 2003 and portrays a horrific story of a couple, Vishal and Swati, that move into a new apartment, not aware it had been haunted by the spirit of a woman who had died there years ago. The couple rents a high rise apartment at a ridiculously low price. To almost everyone, that should have been a major red light right there. The caretaker of the apartment, Mr. Thakkar explains to Vishal that a widow named Manjeet Khosla , the previous resident, committed suicide after killing her own son. Vishal hides this fact from Swati, as she will object to buying such a residence. 

The couple is played by Ajay Devgan and Urmila Matondkar. Talking about acting, at the time this film was the real deal. Urmila won several accolades and awards for her performance as a ghost possessed wife. Which I am actually really eager to get into.

Shifting to Stree, it is a much newer film, 2018 to be exact.  The film's plot is based on the Karnataka urban legend known as Nale Ba (English: "Come Tomorrow"), about a spirit named Stree who knocks on people's doors at night. Legend says that Stree is female witch who abducts men at night when they are alone and only leaves their clothes behind. The residents of a town, Chanderi believe in the spirit of an angry woman, referred to as "Stree", who stalks men and whisks them away during the four days of a religious festival every year, causing many disappearances. To protect the residents, "O Stree, come tomorrow" is written in Hindi with bat's blood on the entrances of all homes and men are advised to not roam alone after 10 pm during the festive season, and move in groups for safety - a parallel of instructions women are usually told to follow for their own safety. This never fails to creep me out every single time. 

The main lead, Vicky, acted by Rajkummar Rao a ladies' tailor in the town, mysteriously encounters a charming woman, played by Shraddha Kapoor who only comes to the town during the annual religious festival season and falls in love with her at first sight. She asks him to stitch her a Lehenga (Indian traditional dress). But things start getting fishy when she does not seem like a normal girl, or was she?

 This film was declared a sleeper hit. Meaning at the beginning it was not really looked at much, but later it picked up at the box-office, starting to be liked by more and more people every day. I actually did not know there were films like that. It makes sense now, as the movie does not have many well-known faces, but the plot was definitely the main factor that brought this film out to stand out.

Now why am I comparing these two, well they are probably the only horror Hindi films that actually stand out to me for the acting. That is exactly what I want to expose in this short blog entry. 

So, the only thing to note here is the acting. I have attached two scary clips from both the films to compare as below. 

So , if you notice the first one is the actress Urmila being possessed by a spirit. My honest opinion is that she might have been a little exaggerated for the role. She did a great job don't get me wrong, it just didn't instill that fear in me that it probably should have. After a while, it felt somewhat humorous. Again, this is just my opinion, that can be due to the era now, and the quality of the films now. But it just did not work for me. The Stree one however was pretty freaky, for me. I compared these two because Stree is actually a horror mixed with comedy. As in the whole circumstance is creepy but it has purpose humor and was perfect in the sense that if it was not really scary, like up to my expectations, the thought that it was a funny movie in the first place will always be at the back of my mind. I think that is really smart, because in the first clip, Urmila is supposed to be scaring every ounce of life in you. But the facial expressions, the lighting and the makeup didn't really do it for me. But, if it was a horror comedy, then it would have made me feel much better about the movie as a whole. That whole idea baffles me, you don't get the viewers expectations too high, but at the same time make them want more from the movie. Stree was genius in terms of its execution in that sense. No wonder there's a second movie coming soon, I would not even hesitate to watch it. But not alone, despite the comedy bit. 

What did you think about it? Are you a fan of the horror and terror?

Bhoot

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Urmila Matondkar, Fardeen Khan, Rekha, Nana Patekar, Tanuja, Seema Biswas, Victor Banerjee, Barkha Madan, Master Akshit

Director: Ram Gopal Verma

Year released: 2003 

Stree

Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee, Flora Saini, Vijay Raaz, Akash Dabhade, Atul Srivastava, Ramkrishna Dhakad, 

Director: Amar Kaushik

Year released: 2018

Link to watch full movie with english subtitles:

Stree [Sub: Eng] Watch Movies from Around the World at Gomovies (gomovies-online.vip)