The show premiered yesterday evening
&TV is finally entered the horror genre with its new show, Darr Sabko Lagta Hai. The show which is a venture of Reel Productions is hosted by Bollywood’s reining horror queen, Bipasha Basu. The show premiered last night and well, given that I was excited to catch it after the intriguing promos, I sat in front of my huge idiot box (I’m sure looking like one too) a good half hour before the show started, ready to be spooked. Read on to know whether it did have the expected result or not…
What’s it about?
Like most horror shows, this one too is going to be a series of short stories shown one in each episode. But what binds them all together is Bipasha Basu. So in the last episode, Bipasha (playing herself) wanted to meet someone who has experienced some paranormal activity first hand and try to relate to their pain. Her assistant finally manages to find a lady like this who then goes on to tell the story of the Abby Villa where a doctor would kill people and capture their souls. The story starts with Naina (Vidya Malvade), a ghost hunter who eventually falls prey to the dark forces and is now possessed by the spirit of the evil doctor. Naina’s assistant too, is possessed by the nurse (a close aide of the doctor). The show ended with the promise of an impending trouble.
What’s hot?
I wouldn’t say that the show is the best thing that happened to Indian Television, but from whatever has been fed to us so far in the name of horror, it is a definitive step up. To start with, I like the fact that there is one constant in this show to look forward to every week. While most horror shows are usually a set of short, independent stories, Darr Sabko Lagta Hai binds these stories together in a flow; the thread being Bipasha Basu. Of course her long connection with the genre makes her the most fitting choice. Next up is the fact that the show is quite progressive as far as horror shows go, in the sense that it has moved on from the whole Tantrik baba in a black costume and painted forehead phase to a more sophisticated paranormal scientist one. So Naina is a plan-chit expert with a lot of experience and research in the field of paranormal sciences and the best thing is that she does not feel the need to dress up outrageously to scare the ghosts and us. She dresses up like any normal modern day girl would which makes it easy to relate to the character. And while we are at it, for a change the makeup of the ghosts too is done to create the right amount of spookiness without making it look very artificial and laughable. The best part of the show, however, is the creative story telling that keeps you hooked. It might not be nail-bitingly scary, but the way the story is presented, you are intrigued enough to want to know what will happen next; like when the ghost of a pregnant girl taps Naina on the back and the shot is suddenly cut off. There was no way you could blink while the hand of the ghost was moving towards Naina. What increased the impact of the scene further was the music build-up in the background which was also suddenly cut short along with the scene.
I strongly believe that the whole thriller genre thrives on a perfectly placed and timed background score that can either leave you biting your nails with nerves or kill the mood completely. The worst thing about it is that it can easily get too much or over the top like it does with every single one of our daily soaps. The same is, however, not the case with Darr Sabko Lagta Hai.
The high production value (which in most cases is a far-fetched dream) is also worth mentioning as it clearly has a huge hand in the theatrical cinematic experience.
What’s not?
The show is relatively decent, but is not devoid of some glaring flaws, logic being the most prominent of them all. Like at the end when the Police inspector comes in to inspect the scene in the Abbey Villa after receiving a call from Naina. Now this inspector knew there is something terribly fishy with the place, despite that he decides to go all alone to that place not bothering to take at least one constable along. Even if there is nothing wrong with the place, there’s always a team who inspects a crime scene not a single inspector. Then there’s a major problem with the story itself… it leaves a lot unanswered. Let’s take the above ‘ghost tapping on Naina’s back’ scene for example again. So the whole sequence is beautifully shot, but what next? The story fast-forwards to the following morning where Naina is sleeping on the couch. You are looking for something that’ll scare you like the ghost’s face or something, but you don’t really get to see that. In fact, everything that could have given you the chills has, for some reason, been eliminated. Say, for example, the whole store-room sequence. There was so much scope to play around with the place, the darkness, the ghosts, but we got nothing which resulted in the story being interesting yet not scary at all.
What to do?
The show is definitely a good attempt but has its flaws which are salvageable. For now, if you enjoy short stories and are not looking for something particularly scary or spooky, you can tune in to the show.
[movierate star=”3″]