Enjoy The Curse. Review on Shaapit

The trend of horror movies is back again this summer and after Rokkk the second horror movie to hit the big screen is Shaapit. Directed by Vikram Bhatt, Shaapit is a decent horror movie that has many genuinely scary scenes that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The movie also introduces Aditya Narayan and Shweta Agarwal for the first time on the screen. Like Raaz and 1920, Shaapit is a love story that revolves around a generation curse that haunts the life of those who try to go against it.

The story revolves around Aman (Aditya Narayan) and Kaya (Shweta Agarwal) who are childhood friends and very much in love with each other. Their relationship slowly matures into the next level and they decide to move one step further by getting engaged, but that's exactly when things begin to go wrong. Kaya's father reveals that Aman has to walk out of the life of Kaya because their entire family has been cursed and the curse has followed them through generations. However, Aman and Kaya decide to find out the truth behind the curse and to kill it rather than getting killed. Aman and his friend, Shubh manage to convince Professor Pashupati (Rahul Dev) who is an expert in paranormal science. Together, Aman, Kaya, Pashupati and Shubh decide to peek into the incidents that gave birth to this curse so that they can kill it, but even before they can take their first step to solve the mystery, a series of happenings lead Kaya into coma. How the rest of the three struggle to kill the curse and save Kaya is what leads to the climax of the movie?

The overall story of the movie is typical Bollywood and some scenes almost look like taken from the Ramsay classics, but director Vikram Bhatt is well experienced on how to keep the audience hooked up, scene after scene. The very first few scenes of the movie are really important and if you are going for the movie than make sure you do not miss the beginning because a lot of things are revealed initially that connects the story in the climax. I would have loved to tell you more about the scary scenes as well, but I do not want to spoil the fun, so go watch those scenes for yourself. The story and screenplay is done by Vikram Bhatt himself and that is done decently because the story moves forward and backward in time intelligently keeping the rhythm of the movie in the same flow. Cinematography by Pravin Bhatt is very good, especially the scary scenes are brilliantly executed which is very important when making a genuinely scary movie. Another important aspect of a horror movie is the background score and that too stands out and full credit goes to Raju Rao. However, I felt that the level of background score that we heard in Raaz was missing in Shaapit. The visual effects of the movie are comparatively a lot better, but I think that Hindi movies still haven't achieved that mastery level where we can use visual effects over and over and many people might find that visual effects have spoiled the show, especially towards the end of the movie. What does not work for Shaapit is loose script and over use of songs. I really don't understand why Vikram Bhatt punctured the movie with so many songs. Of course, some songs like Kabhi Na Kabhi To Miloge and Ajnabee Hawayein by Chirantan Bhatt are good, but the rest of the lot spoils the entire rhythm. The Arabic dance song is totally too much to digest because I really wonder if any Hindu King ruling the kingdom 300 years ago would ever had a chance to enjoy belly dance. The climax of the movie too is very filmi and people are well aware of what the hero is going to do next.

On the performance level, Aditya Narayan does a fine job and his acting is very natural compare to Shweta Agarwal who does not get much scope to display her talent. Rahul Dev does a decent job as a professor who is obsessed to find answers to paranormal activities. Overall, Shaapit is a one time watch movie that has many spine chilling scenes that will keep you on the edge of the seat because you never know when the next scene might make you jump out of your seat. However, try not to use too much of logic when you are watching the movie.

To conclude, if you are looking for a decent horror flick than go watch Shaapit for a late night show and I am sure you will enjoy the screams.