The screenplay, often the mainstay of a horror film, is the low point of the film. It goes nowhere and everywhere. And then we come to the logic of it all. Or the lack of it. The whole point of the film is that Kajol wants to shield her daughter from evil. She knew the place she’s going to was evil. So why did she give in to her daughter’s demands? I mean, she and her husband literally lied to his father about having a female child to shield it from the evil practices done in their ancestral village. Then, there is the question of other girls taken away by the daitya, whom he turns into his minions (read wood spirits). The best scene in the film in fact is all of them dropping on the speeding car going through the forest in order to stop Kajol and her daughter from getting away. That’s pure Rohit Shetty style action. Maybe he ghost-directed the segment. The thing is that there’s no point to all this. The all-powerful evil deity, who has the whole village in its thrall, simply doesn’t need them to do its bidding. Its own power was enough to cause mayhem. In fact, nature going evil and causing destruction and then having Kajol setting things right would have been a better construct than this present mishmash of horror tropes. Sam Raimi had made ‘tree horror’ a hallmark way back in Evil Dead (1981) but got carried away and was thrashed royally for his ‘tree rape’ scene, and that’s probably the reason Furia decided that the abducted girls remained unmolested. But there are too many references to period blood in the film for them to be comfortable. It’s one thing to normalise periods and another to make them a vital link in a horror story but the director clearly didn’t get the memo.
Kherin Sharma maybe was overawed when acting in front of Kajol as her daughter Shewta. Her clingy teenager act doesn’t cut ice. Contrast this to Janki Bodiwala from Shaitaan (2024), who was a natural as Ajay Devgn’s and Jyotika’s daughter. That natural ease between a parent and child is missing. She’s simply miscast. A better prepared child actor was needed here to build emotional gravitas but director Furia and his casting agents just misfired here. Indraneil Sengupta has too brief a role as Kajol’s husband to have any lasting impact on the film. Ronit Roy plays a Bengali landlord and is more of a caricature than an actual person. That’s surprising since he himself is Bengali. Furia must have been unaware of the culture but it was Roy’s duty to play the part right. Right now, it feels like a Punjabi actor is doing it. There’s also Jitin Gulati who comes as a square jawed inspector but is restricted by the screenplay.
It falls to Kajol to hold the film together and she does a great job of it. Watch it solely for her performance. She’s given her hundred percent to the project and then some. But even her superlative acting can’t cover up the cracks of a badly written screenplay. The nonsensical plot puts her valiant effort into shade. It’s bold of her to choose a different genre. She’s done thrillers like Gupt or Dushman earlier but is mostly known for her rom coms. Horror definitely is a new thing for her and given the actor she is, she definitely will excel in this genre too.
Also Read: Photos: Ajay Devgn, Dhanush, Sonu Nigam and More at Kajol’s Maa Screening