Shaapit: The Cursed

Just saw this movie, couldn't help myself to write the review. Well I was tempted to see this movie as I liked some the Vikram Bhatt movies, but this was totally out his league (inversely). Well the plot building was pretty good. But somewhere in the middle he lost it.

Initially the reason for the curse was something and in the end it changed to something else. Then I thought the Kaya was from the royal family, so I couldn't reason why Aman would not be able to manage a free ticket to the palace. Then if the spirit was suppose to be so strong why would it possess the professor's body. So ultimately the plot was a waste.

But the direction again was awesome. The set was good. So was the environment and the music. And even the spirit was pretty impressive. But what with the crawling on the wall. So ultimately the rating from me would so-so.

PS: Here comes Aditya Narayan, pretty impressive, watch out for him. He is a talented actor.

There are mainly only two formulas of making Horror movies in Bollywood. One is to easily go for an urban scary tale inspired from the foreign horror films famous in various parts of the world. And second is to go back to our own tried and tested formula of Ramsay brothers involving Kings & Queens of the past era. Vikram Bhatt tasted success with "Raaz" made on the first one and now comes up with "Shaapit" made on the second formula mentioned above.

His latest venture reveals the secret of a curse being faced by only the girls of a family from many generations. When the young lead couple of the story deeply in love, are told about this curse by their parents, then instead of compromising with the situation, they decide to go on a search for the evil spirit and finish it off. The same plot was earlier used by Ramsay brothers in their 1984 movie "Purana Mandir" and now Vikram Bhatt uses it again with some re-touches of his own along with the new advanced technology and gimmicks.

Initially, the movie does well to keep the viewer interested. The ground work to introduce various characters and situations is well worked upon and impresses. But on the later stages, the story loses the grip and starts boring you with its prolonged sequences and proceedings. However, in the first hour, "Shaapit"' has few worth watching scenes like the one where the boy goes for stealing a cursed book from the library and when the girl sees an old lady lying on the road in front of her car. But post intermission the movie relies heavily upon the action scenes between the human and the spirit and those too are stretched to a great extent.

Ideally a horror movie should never be lengthy enough, leading to loss of interest. It should be very fast and quick, which scares you off at once and doesn't provide any dull moments for thinking. Unfortunately, Shaapit scores very low in this direction as its quite lengthy requiring a great amount of trimming from its director. Post interval, even after the whole secret has been revealed to the viewers, they still have to wait too long for the movie to get over. And that proves to be the biggest drawback of an otherwise average Shaapit.

The special effects used in various scenes are also in huge contrast with each other. At one end the graphics representations are good enough to scare you off but at the same time, they are very childishly done in a different scene. For instance, in the climax scene, where the water starts pouring in from the broken wall, you can clearly see "the blurred chroma cutting edges" around the characters and elements. (Readers having the knowledge of graphics and editing would easily understand what I am referring to.)

But there is one major contribution made by the movie in the form of "Aditya Narayan", who is a complete natural in front of the camera and is really a blessed child of the Holy Creator. He is the best example of the fact that a Star Child is just not given a chance due to his family connections. He was chosen for the role only because the director could see that he can act. Aditya, not only looks smart and fresh on screen, but he also delivers a polished act without any signs of nervousness on screen. Along with his singing, acting is another aspect of his future career, for which he should now seriously plan and think, as we are willing to see more of him pretty soon.

Shweta doesn't get much scope on screen as most of the time she is lying on the hospital bed in coma and gets no major scenes to show her talent. Thankfully Rahul Dev is not over the top this time and makes an impact. Debutant Shubh Joshi acts well with great confidence and rest all in the cast do justice to their roles as required. In the music section, two songs seem to be interesting while watching the movie. Especially "Tere Bina" has got the pain of separation and love. But still the music is not as rich as compared to the earlier hits given by Vikram Bhatt. Background music is loud at times but rightly provides the scary moments too when needed.

On the whole, "Shaapit" is not a very fine horror flick, coming from the house of Vikram Bhatt this time. It has an interesting and watchable first half but crashes down to a large extent later on. The only worth mentioning merit of the movie is "Aditya Narayan" who forces you to notice him and his acting skills with élan.

When I first heard about Shaapit, I was a li'l thrilled as it was a "The Vikram Bhatt" movie. Vikram Bhatt established himself in the area film direction with his super hit Raaz, a movie which will always stand the test of time. After Raaz, Vikram Bhatt seemed to loose his roots. His style, though present in bits in pieces, lacked that finesse that was present in Raaz. 1920 did provide some promise but the end result was far from satisfying. Shaapit is a movie which shouldn't have been made, a waste of money. The essence of a horror movie is the build up of the core plot and most importantly a horrifying ghost/monster. The build up was OK but the monster really sucked. 3rd grade CG used in portraying the ghost. Secondly, the emotional part of the lover duo was extended without any purpose. There wasn't any chemistry present between them. No match for the Dino-Bipasha pair. Thirdly, horror content of the movie was very low. Shhh...Phir Koi Hai of Star One would have done better than this movie. The positives of the movie were the thought behind the movie which could have been netter executed. Implementation of CG in Hindi horror for the 1st time perhaps. Locales. And Aditya to some extent. As a horror movie fan and a small time critic, I really would like to convey 1 or 2 things to Sir Vikram Bhatt. A love story isn't necessary to be included in a horror movie. Just once watch movies like Jeepers Creepers, Nightmare on the Elm Street, Night of the Living Dead, Grudge, Ring and Silent Hill. These movies are unorthodox, innovative, gory, psychologically impacting and super hits. Can't we make movies like this??? Isn't the Indian audience ready & mature enough to experience another level of thrill??? Is there a dearth of ideas and courage to make such movies??? I would say NO. We can definitely make much better movies than these, horror movies in the real sense. And, you Vikram Bhatt definitely is one of those people who are capable of making such movies. As for summarising Shaapit, I think it should be skipped for some other task worthy of our time.

micky23

Shaapit is not a bad movie idk what the audienecs want. The story is nice acting okay and direction fantastic. The atmosphere is spooky and unsettling. The execution is fine. But the way The King is portrayed is not very nice. The item song ruins it. The ending is childish. They did not give any time to design the ghost properly. But whatever when u warch the film u enjoy and u dont feel like u wasted 2 hrs. U enjoy it. I like it. Not a bad film. Worth watching one time. Surprised to know it was a flop.

Shaapit was my first horror movie seen in a theater. and believe me, it justified the price paid for the ticket. Most of the theater was empty which added to the atmosphere. It may not be the best Vikram Bhatt horror flick but still has some good jump scares. I consider Vikram's Raaz as one of the best bollywood horror films.

the positives: spooky atmosphere, great story setting and build-up, a good mix of science, mythology and history, melodious music, some scary effects & BGM considering it was a low-budget film

the negatives: the cast was new except Rahul Dev so acting was a bit hit-n-miss, Aditya Narayan looked a little childish for the the part of hero but his efforts are worth appreciating, the CGI effects on ghost's design were cheesy

On the whole, a very entertaining fare from Bollywood horror veteran Vikram Bhatt