After meeting a new student, a group of friends at a local college are suddenly subjected to a series of strange deaths that are soon found to be the result of a spirit freed from a cursed book they found, who is looking for her soulmate in one of the group members, and must stop their rampage.
For the most part, this one is an enjoyable Hindi genre effort. Among its finest aspects is a rather strong setup offering a rather strong collection of ideas together. The central concept of the group came across the concept of the cursed book and its legacy when it was originally offered to the school, and its history caused it to be stored away at the second location so as not to influence anyone until the friends appear to initiate the curse. This is all generally impressive enough on it's own even without the fantastic dynamic within the group where the interplay between the guy and his girlfriend that plays a major role in their lives to where they're about to be married before the new girl arrives to throw everything into chaos be being seen as the one to possibly tempt the couple into breaking up before realizing that the group is slowly being knocked off. It's all quite intriguing with several rather fun twists to make it all go into some unexpected areas that are fueled by some intriguing concepts involving the true meaning of love and enduring fate beyond death that intermingles itself within the storyline between the guy and his girlfriend, for a lot to like with this main setup. That provides the basis for the film to bring about some rather solid, if admittedly formulaic, supernatural haunting scenes. Featuring a usual assortment of scenes involving a victim coming across something unnatural, interacting with them outside of its normal operating mode that signals its supernatural influence, the encounters here do have a sense of familiarity to them. That becomes even more apparent once the reveal happens and it switches to more of a mix between ghostly spirit and possession involving the new girl and her relationship with her boyfriend, which provides some decent scenes here. Still, some of the encounters aren't too bad in execution, with a far greater studio gloss than expected, providing some fine stunt-work involving several car crashes and a great sequence inside the closed school where the awakened spirit runs through the group, even if it never leads to any deaths. The big finale, where the sorcery performances and a somewhat intriguing exorcism attempt are used to stop the spirit, is another grand touch with a lot of decent stunts thrown in to like about it, and overall makes for a thrilling feature. There are some factors here that hold it back. The main drawback is a surprisingly goofy and unnecessarily silly backstory to try to justify the deaths of the spirit couple, which comes off far too over-the-top and unnecessary, as it could've gone with. The revelation of the couple going through a bizarre murder plot involving several students on campus and trying to use that as leverage to run away together seems far too excessive a means to get them away from the school so that their bodies are away from campus. As well, this issue also makes their concurrent possession of the book come off nonsensical, with no connection to how their story is supposed to mimic the story in the book, based on everything, so it feels quite flimsy and uninteresting. Alongside that confusing setup, the other factor here is the series of clunky low-budget limitations placed in here, where the lack of scale with the college-set location or authority figures looking into the string of deaths runs counterintuitive to the impressive effects and makes the film look cheaper than it is, all of which hold this one down.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.
