Bhoot returns (a)
Director: Ramgopal Varma
Cast: Manisha Koirala, Chakravarthy, Madhu Shalini, Alayana Kapoor
Running time: 90 minutes

The strength of a horror film lies in scaring the audience with what is not shown rather than what is shown.

But Ramgopal Varma, who gave us the genuinely scary-in-parts Bhoot in 2003, seems to believe that the easiest way to make his audience jump in their seats is by punctuating long spells of silence with bouts of ear-splitting background music.

Bhoot Returns, which is the maverick director’s umpteenth tryst with the horror genre after the Darna duds and the Phoonk films, treads the familiar RGV terrain of a supernatural presence in a haunted house that wreaks havoc in the lives of its occupants.

Much like most of his horror films, RGV plants a family of four as new tenants in a swanky pad whose earlier occupants have disappeared mysteriously. Things go well for the family till the time their six-year-old daughter Nimmi (Alayana Sharma) starts talking about her new friend Shabbo. Initially, the parents (played by Satya man Chakravarthy and Manisha Koirala) pass it off as a figment of their daughter’s overactive imagination, but things come to a head when Shabbo’s presence is felt through a series of eerie happenings in the house.

RGV uses stock spine-chilling elements to try and create a sense of foreboding. Doors creak, the pitter-patter of tiny feet is heard, sheets are pulled away from sleeping people at night and heavy furniture is displaced mysteriously. However, as the same scenes play out night after night, the initial sense of fear gives way to boredom.

It doesn’t help that some scenes that are meant to scare turn out to be howlarious. Like the one in the dead of the night in which members of the same family mistake each other for ghosts or even their encounter with a smartass cop when the daughter goes missing.

The ho-hum storyline is further weakened by Sandeep Chowta’s grating background score. The 3D used does nothing to enhance the film, with RGV merely using the tech tool to thrust a whirring ceiling fan or an oscillating wind chime in your face.

Even at 90 minutes, Bhoot Returns feels far too long with the abrupt ending preceded by a bloodbath only adding to the agony.

The acting ranges from bad to worse with Chakravarthy going over-the-top and a bloated Manisha sleepwalking through her role. It is evident that south star Madhu Shalini is RGV’s current muse given that she is saddled with some important scenes that she isn’t able to do justice to. It is only child actor Alayana who manages to hold her own, her innocent face acting as a perfect foil to her sinister designs.

But far more spine-chilling than Bhoot Returns is the fact that Bhoot 3 is already on the floors. You have been warned.

Priyanka Roy