The Many Bhoots of Bollywood

In one of my aimless afternoon browsing spells on the internet, I come across this piece in Tehelka about the Ramsay scion watching and evaluating Haunted, Vikram Bhatt’s new horror movie in 3D. Shyam Ramsay, given the family’s experience in successfully scaring the masses with movies like Aakhri Cheez and Shaitani Ilaka, is disappointed by Bhatt’s tepid offering. The “minimal but chalky” make-up, the violence that is all too understated, the ineffective 3D effects… why, even the rapist ghost fails to perform to Ramsay’s expectations.

Intrigued, I search for more information on this movie (yes, glutton for punishment, I am). And I find that “flushed with the success” of Haunted, he is all set to make his next 3D thriller called Dangerous Ishq, which he describes in interviews as an “erotic thriller”. Enough said.

Sex and sleaze always sell – throw in some scares and you have the makings of a hit movie. But other than just mixing in these elements in generous measures, Bollywood has never quite known how to handle the supernatural. Yes, I know what you are thinking – how well do they handle the natural? Or what passes for natural in Bollywood?

However, these questions, interesting as they are, are neither here nor there. Somewhat like the bhatakti atmas of Hindi cinema. The bhoot has captured the imagination of the Indian moviemaker in a way that nothing else has, not the apahij behen, not the vidhwa ma, not the amir ladki or even the kutta kameena villain. For, while the latter characters are all strictly unidimensional, the bhoot has found various creative expressions.

So I get to thinking about the popular avatars of the horror-thriller movie in Bollywood (add sleaze to taste).

The wispy lady in white – Much like Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott, she floats by, dead pale into Camelot, she glides through the dark night candle in hand so she does not go bump into furniture, she smiles vacuously (whether or not like Lady of Shalott, we cannot say since Tennyson remains mum on this). And before you can say woh kaun thi, she is gone, disappearing in an eye-blink like the money in government coffers. Remember the gorgeous Madhubala in aayega aanewala from Mahal?

Or in some cases, the lady herself not so wispy but clad in diaphanous white all the same – think Dimple Kapadia in the later-day Bees Saal Baad (1988). Or Aishwarya Rai from Mohabbatein (2000), a horror movie in more ways than one.

This is version 1 of ‘Ma, I can see dead people’.

The thing with the ugly mask – This is version 1.1 and it goes, ‘Ma, I can see dead people, but why do they have such terrible make-up?’

For several years, Hindi cinema, mainly B and C grade, made a killing (heh!) on this, saving money on actors as much as on locations, script writers and publicists (wall posters come cheap). It basically involved a bunch of nondescript actors woken up really early in the morning and shoved in front of the camera without any make-up on. This motley bunch was usually passed off as a group of college students on a picnic getting bumped off one after the other till the hero finally manages to unmask (heh! again) the killer.

The animal incarnations – Think Sridevi slithering in the mud, think Jeetendra in a muted gold mini skirt – in Nagina (1986) and Nagin (1976) respectively, both superhit movies. Think snake charmer and snake reincarnated as human in turmoil. Or to put other humans in turmoil. Revenge, drama, suspense, sex, violence, superhit gaane – all the ingredients are in place – and what the producer saves by way of Jumping Jack’s pants, he invests in a pair of purple contact lens for the snake-lady.
Call this one, ‘Ma, I can see animals and they have deadpan expressions’.

The snake-man does not work just as well, as ardent fans of Jaani Dushman – Ek Anokhi Kahani (2002 multi-starrer) will know. I don’t know of any other animal avatars in Bollywood though; why this fascination with snakes? Why not a tiger (1411 less one, say) out for revenge against the poacher? Or a monkey that is in search of unrequited love from a past life? Speaking of which, let’s quickly move on to the next avatar (literally), i.e. reincarnation stories.

Reincarnation – This one is similar to the earlier version (and all movies in the genre are similar to each other) except that it is not snakes but humans caught up in the never-ending chakra of life and lust. Take a generous handful of the usual ingredients, add unrequited love and revenge as the central themes (for good measure, feature an above-mentioned lady in wispy white) and voila! And as a general rule, these movies have done well at the box-office, all the way from plump Vyjayanthimala in a ghaghra choli in Madhumati to ShahRukh Khan in Superman spandex tights in Om Shanti Om.

It takes colossal talent to make such movies flop, as we know from the fate of Karzzzz (a reincarnation story circa 1980 with considerably fewer z’s, reincarnated in the mid 2000s). Or as in Prem which unleashed an effeminate Sanjay Kapoor and a strapping Tabu on an unsuspecting world, where the audience was horrified by the fact that they could not make out which one was the hero and which the heroine.

But in general, this theme is ‘Ma, tera beta wapas aa gaya, ma’.

And then finally a quick look at the others.

The friendly neighbourhood spirit, which is a fairly new avatar of the Bollywood bhoot – the mean, unfriendly, salt and pepper haired, let-down-by-the-world spirit that turns friendly and mischievous, usually in a desperate measure to stop the chubby (not to mention annoying and precocious) kid of the house from prattling on any longer – this started with Bhootnath (2008), with the big B playing mean spirit.

There is also the Possession motif, where the ghost enters a person – or a doll – makes for many moments of entertainment for the audience (and not scares, as with any self-respecting exorcist movie in Hollywood) and exits in the end, thanks to a helpful tantric.

A postmodern version of this has been in vogue for the last decade or so, the bhoot movies where the horror is sometimes unintended. I am talking about Urmila Matondkar’s horrifying act in Bhoot (2003), brought to you by the Ramsey Gopal Varma school of moviemaking. But let’s face it, how long can creaky doors and swish-pan shots frighten, especially audiences who have already watched RGV ki Aag? Rumour has it that he is in talks for his next movie about the living dead of the Mumbai underworld, called Marna mana hai. We will have to wait and watch what comes of this.

Ok, about those tigers? I find Kaal has a tiger in a central role. But considering the movie starred actors like Vivek Oberoi and John Abraham, that bit about deadpan expressions stays.

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A version of this was published in the new website – FirstPost last week of May.