Dui Shaw

While Pet Kata Shaw set a high bar with its hype and narrative grip, Dui Shaw struggles to reach the same heights. The series carries a cinematic coolness that visually appeals, but the storytelling in these first four episodes feels underwhelming. Despite boasting a strong star cast, the writing doesn't hold up, leaving the show short of its potential. Unfortunately, this doesn't feel like Nuhash Humayun's best work.

That said, it was great to see Sumaiya Shimu back in a series like this, bringing a familiar presence to the screen. Episode 1 managed to give off a good vibe, setting some expectations. The little kid in Episode 4 was enjoyable and added a nice touch, but the other two episodes didn't leave much of an impact-they neither stood out nor evoked any strong feelings.

Edited from episodes of a TV series, a series of stories looking at various folklore stories that are played out.

The Good Stor(ies): Prayer Time-After pulling off a heist in a temple, a group of shady college students find themselves subject to a series of strange accidents that take place during daily Islamic prayer times. When they trace everything back to a mysterious spirit taking revenge for their vandalization of the temple, they try to fight back as best they can. This was a fantastic start to things. The simple setup and engrossing mix of traditional genre tropes with cultural specificity makes this segment a highly effective one as there's a wholly specific motivation for the curse to be enacted against the group tying everything together through the certain prayer times in their religion, making for a genuine reason to be targeted for their indiscretion. With these taking the form of gruesome accidents that appear as suicides yet are accomplished by supernatural assistance, there's some fine brutality and gore in these scenes that helps to explain the feverish nature of their impending doom coming for them. Graced with spectacular imagery and some atmospheric locations that help make the religious theming all the more potent, this is a generally strong and impressive start.

Antara-Living with her husband, a woman makes friends with a local girl in the nearby village, which helps her to realize that she has no memory of her life before meeting him and getting married. As she struggles to get a grip on her life and her sanity, the truth about what's going on places her in jeopardy. Overall, this was a solid enough if somewhat problematic feature. The main mystery involving her unknown past and how the little girl she meets points to her lack of memory about the past sets up an intriguing starting point for what's going on. That allows the tension to be increased with a series of hints that something's wrong with her husband, with his attitude towards her that makes for a more terrifying scenario than it should, as it starts to put more pieces together about who her husband is and why he needs her. However, that makes for a lackluster and underwhelming final confrontation that goes for more of a mystical touch that doesn't need to be included, as it doesn't make the repeating-day storyline make any sense. Still, that's pretty much the only factor against this segment.

Beshura-Living in a remote village, a young girl tries to make friends with the rest of the locals who are far more musically inclined and talented than she is, no matter how hard she practices. Finally discovering the village's history and purpose, she sets out to live her life against their wishes. Generally, this was a fun segment to close on. The idea about the village favoring song and dance skills as the most important facet of their society and opting to shame her parents for failing to instill the proper techniques into her makes for an intriguing setup. Getting to see the way the village treats those who are in her situation, with the lack of talent and being forced to acclimate to their conditions or face the dire consequences, allows for a bizarre take on the deadly village trope, which all creates such a fun time here. It's somewhat difficult to believe that this setup would exist with the type of scenario presented here, where the fate of a person's life is dependent on their musical abilities, but it's not enough to lower this one overall.

The Bad Stor(ies): Good Luck-Trying to make ends meet, a fortune teller looking to find a kidney donor to help keep his ailing mother alive, who inadvertently reads his palm, which is forbidden in the community. Shortly afterward, he begins to experience a rash of good luck that he believes is set to change his outlook on life, only for unforeseen circumstances to prevent that from happening. Generally, this was a decidedly underwhelming segment without a whole lot going for it. The general theme involving the off-repeated notion of performing something forbidden to get something you deeply desire only for that to come back around in a gruesome twist might make for a sense of comfort viewing by following along the blueprint of the genre quite closely with the man's arrogance and lack of foresight coming back to take him out. However, that doesn't make this all that original or creative, with things being quite obvious from the start where it's going, leaving a lot of the attempts to force him back into reversing his fate to feel quite bland and predictable. While it's still visually impressive to see how these things play out and the unraveling mental state that takes place with everything falling down around him, it just doesn't have the creativity to measure up to some of the other segments.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

This is a film that I got the chance to see thanks to getting a press pass to the Raindance Film Festival. They have a section of horror films being shown so I requested all the ones that were available. This was the first one that I checked out and to my surprise, this is an anthology from Bangladesh. It marks the first work that I've seen from this coutnry. This is also a four-part series that is combined into a feature film. Other than that, I came blind.

Synopsis: a modern revival of mysterious and lurid plots taken from traditional South Asian folk tales updated to present times.

Since this is an anthology film that has the same filmmaking team, I'm going to go ahead and just break down each of the stories. I'll come together though for my score since this has the same creative team across the board.

Our first story is 'Prayer Time'. The premise is that a group of college students take a shady job vandalizing a temple for money. Their actions trigger a series of violent supernatural events that mysteriously sync with daily Islamic prayer times, threatening their survival.

Then the next tale is 'Good Luck' where we're following a man who is a fortune teller. He struggles to find a donor for his mother's kidney transplant when he accidentally gets a chance to change his fate. This includes breaking the most important rule of this profession, reading your own.

The third segment is 'Antara'. This follows a timid housewife as she questions her reality after an accident. Her husband might not be the man that she married either.

This then leads to the final tale, Beshura'. It takes place in a small village full of singers. A little girl who has no singing ability was born here. Her 8th birthday approaches and she's given 1 day to achieve the ability to sing.

These recaps are great in giving you an idea of each of the stories without spoiling them. Let's then go ahead and break down each of them.

'Prayer Time' hooked me from the beginning. We have this group of guys who vandalize this temple. I believe there are five of them all together, where 4 live in the same place. They are paired off as roommates. Ahead of their crime, one was looking at this young woman. He sees her enter his room and then he's killed, by sticking his fingers in a power outlet. This is just the first accident that happens and the pattern is syncing up with prayer time. I thought our group of friends were believable. Their acting is all solid there. The best part though is the effects. This goes brutally there and they seem to be practical. My favorite parts though are the cinematography and framing. This plays with perception as we're seeing what they are and then 'reality'. That was creative, especially where this ends as well. This sets the stage and is probably my favorite segment as well.

That's not to say that 'Good Luck' wasn't also good. This kicks off with our fortune teller reading the palm of a woman while her fiancé or husband is with her. He makes an odd prediction about her getting married twice, which was interesting. I like how this plays back in as it explores 'self-fulfilling prophecies.' This teller gets attacked though for something he says about a child, then he's hit with not being able to pay for his mother's procedure. Even if he could, there is a match for her kidney. I don't blame him for doing what he did, we've all been in that place where we've finally had enough so you'll break rules. I also liked the cinematography and framing here. If memory serves, there was CGI. I still enjoyed my time here.

'Antara' is interesting because it almost seems to be using time loops. We constantly come back to his scene of Antara making her husband his morning coffee before he goes to write. He's rude to her. She doesn't seem as upset by it as I'm gathering this is more social norm. There is this little girl that she becomes friendly with. It is here that we learn her husband might be evil. He claims to whisper in people's ears to do bad things. This story goes dark with what he asks a little boy to do. There is a religious angle as to who he is and who Antara could be. This kept the quality going, which was impressive. More good cinematography, framing and practical effects as well. There are great visuals for these dreams that Antara has to help piece things together as she questions her reality.

Then to the final segment which is my least favorite by the slightest of margins, 'Bashura'. I only say that this seems to be the most whimsical. There is this village of singers where they sing a song that is ruined by this little girl. She has until the next day to fix it or The Butchers will decide what to do. They have this great musical number in the woods when she stumbles on them. They're not the only ones she meets. We also see there is a 'witch' living out here. She helps the girl but this gets her captured. I loved where it went from there. The musical numbers are great here. They made me smile. How they shot them was good so credit for the cinematography and framing once again. This is limited in the effects used, but it also doesn't necessarily need them.

There isn't much more that I need to go into so I'll say in conclusion, this was a great first film to check out from Raindance. We are exploring interesting folk tales that have been updated to modern settings. What I like is that we're getting religious elements mixed in. I don't necessarily know the stories, but I could connect with them. These were quite interesting as well to combine organized religion with folklore. The acting was good across the board. They all felt like the characters they were bringing to life. There is also a menacing to certain ones the more we get to know them. These were all well-made. The cinematography and framing lead the way. Most of the effects looked to be practical, looking brutal when needed. The soundtrack, especially from 'Bashura,' helped build the atmosphere needed. This is a great first film to see from this country as well.

My Rating: 8 out of 10.