Bollywood celebrated the diamond jubilee of its existence only a couple of years ago. When we look back, we can justifiably feel proud of its achievements over the decades. The number of feature films which have rolled out of Bollywood studios over the last 77 years runs into nearly forty thousands.The sheer volume of this corpus is overwhelming. Even quality-wise, some of our films have won laurels in international film festivals. Our films have now a thriving overseas market.
Our filmmakers have tried their hand at almost every genre of feature filmmaking. We have, for instance, made love stories, romances, quasi historical films, mystery thrillers, action films, biopics, family dramas, et al. Perhaps the only genre where Bollywood has yet to make its mark is the horror film. We have not yet produced anything that even remotely approaches. ‘The Exorcist’ or ‘The Mummy’ in portraying the dark and indecipherable forces of evil which are supposed to exercise baneful influence on human affairs.
Among our present filmmakers, RGV is considered to be most skilled exponent of the eerie. Now, before we proceed further, we must have a glance at Mr RGV’s track record in producing films with a sitting virtually paralyzed with horror in their seats. It is a mixed bag, to be truthful. Mr RGV hails from Andhra Pradesh, so he started his career by making films in Telugu, some of which were also dubbed in Hindi. His film ‘Raat’ (1992), originally made in Telugu with the title ‘Raathri’, was a horror film. There was, however, nothing original about it. In fact, it was a rehash of several old films, and it failed to impress the audience.
His ‘Deyyam’, made in Telugu, was also a flop. But his film ‘Kaun’ (1999) in Hindi was a box-office hit. It was a horror movie with Urmila Matondkar and Manoj Bajpai in the lead. But his ‘Jungle’ (1999) was again a flop. He recovered lost ground with ‘Boot’ (2003), another horror film which was a moderate success at the box office. But the films that followed ‘Boot’-- ‘Vaastushastra’, ‘Darna Mana Hai’, ‘Naina’ et al- were disappointing. They failed to create the creepy-spooky effect which is so germane to a horror film.
Bollywood has produced not many horror films. And the few it has made have hardly left any impact on the audience. In 1955, Amiya Chakarvarty made ‘Badshah’ with Pradeep Kumar, Usha Kiron and Ulhas in the lead. This film, based on Victor Hugo’s novel ‘The Hunchback Of Notre Dame,’ was not exactly a horror film. But the hunchback in it was supposed to be the scariest sight. The film was, hoever, considered an amateurish attempt and the audience did much like it.
In the 70s, the Ramsay Brothers were the wholesale purveyors of the so-called horror films. But, unfortunately, their methods were so crude and childish that the viewers, instead of flinching in their seats with fright, kept greeting the cackling witches and horned demons in their films with derisive titters.
They started with ‘Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche’ (1972). Thereafter horror films came from the Ramsay camp like assembly line products from a factory. But none of these films- ‘Purana Mandir’, ‘Band Darwaza’, ‘Veerana’, ‘Dak Bangla’, ‘Purani Haveli’ and many others- made any impact on the viewers. When one after the other their films began to bomb at the box office, they wisely thought it was time they closed shop and called it quits.
Perhaps one of the reasons why our horror films often fail to impress the audience is that most of them are crudely desified versions of foreign films. While adapting a foreign film to Indian ethos, our scriptwriters and directors often end up messing up things. With the result, most of our horror films appear to be so outlandish that the audience hardly ever feels related to it. In short, such films have scarcely any relevance to Indian realities. The viewer feels no affinity with characters he sees on the screen. They seem to him inhabiting a world with which he has no connection.
Both English and French literatures are rich with writers who have written horror stories and novels of epic proportions. We have hardly any horror story writer whose creations merit serious attention.In the 40s and 50s, the horror-cum-adventure films we made were mostly based on Arabian Nights Tales. Thus, we had films made on ‘Alladin And His Magic Lamp’, ‘Ali Baba Chalis Chor’, ‘Sindbad The Sailor’, et al. Or, films based on mythology, in which every now and then demons, ghosts, and giants in outlandish outfits made their appearance, laughed uproariously before speaking in a booming voice to the hero or the villain.Frankly, we have not yet produced horror story writers of the caliber of Bram Stokar, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Shirley Jackson, M.R James et al.
Our filmmakers have tried their hand at almost every genre of feature filmmaking. We have, for instance, made love stories, romances, quasi historical films, mystery thrillers, action films, biopics, family dramas, et al. Perhaps the only genre where Bollywood has yet to make its mark is the horror film. We have not yet produced anything that even remotely approaches. ‘The Exorcist’ or ‘The Mummy’ in portraying the dark and indecipherable forces of evil which are supposed to exercise baneful influence on human affairs.
Among our present filmmakers, RGV is considered to be most skilled exponent of the eerie. Now, before we proceed further, we must have a glance at Mr RGV’s track record in producing films with a sitting virtually paralyzed with horror in their seats. It is a mixed bag, to be truthful. Mr RGV hails from Andhra Pradesh, so he started his career by making films in Telugu, some of which were also dubbed in Hindi. His film ‘Raat’ (1992), originally made in Telugu with the title ‘Raathri’, was a horror film. There was, however, nothing original about it. In fact, it was a rehash of several old films, and it failed to impress the audience.
His ‘Deyyam’, made in Telugu, was also a flop. But his film ‘Kaun’ (1999) in Hindi was a box-office hit. It was a horror movie with Urmila Matondkar and Manoj Bajpai in the lead. But his ‘Jungle’ (1999) was again a flop. He recovered lost ground with ‘Boot’ (2003), another horror film which was a moderate success at the box office. But the films that followed ‘Boot’-- ‘Vaastushastra’, ‘Darna Mana Hai’, ‘Naina’ et al- were disappointing. They failed to create the creepy-spooky effect which is so germane to a horror film.
Bollywood has produced not many horror films. And the few it has made have hardly left any impact on the audience. In 1955, Amiya Chakarvarty made ‘Badshah’ with Pradeep Kumar, Usha Kiron and Ulhas in the lead. This film, based on Victor Hugo’s novel ‘The Hunchback Of Notre Dame,’ was not exactly a horror film. But the hunchback in it was supposed to be the scariest sight. The film was, hoever, considered an amateurish attempt and the audience did much like it.
In the 70s, the Ramsay Brothers were the wholesale purveyors of the so-called horror films. But, unfortunately, their methods were so crude and childish that the viewers, instead of flinching in their seats with fright, kept greeting the cackling witches and horned demons in their films with derisive titters.
They started with ‘Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche’ (1972). Thereafter horror films came from the Ramsay camp like assembly line products from a factory. But none of these films- ‘Purana Mandir’, ‘Band Darwaza’, ‘Veerana’, ‘Dak Bangla’, ‘Purani Haveli’ and many others- made any impact on the viewers. When one after the other their films began to bomb at the box office, they wisely thought it was time they closed shop and called it quits.
Perhaps one of the reasons why our horror films often fail to impress the audience is that most of them are crudely desified versions of foreign films. While adapting a foreign film to Indian ethos, our scriptwriters and directors often end up messing up things. With the result, most of our horror films appear to be so outlandish that the audience hardly ever feels related to it. In short, such films have scarcely any relevance to Indian realities. The viewer feels no affinity with characters he sees on the screen. They seem to him inhabiting a world with which he has no connection.
Both English and French literatures are rich with writers who have written horror stories and novels of epic proportions. We have hardly any horror story writer whose creations merit serious attention.In the 40s and 50s, the horror-cum-adventure films we made were mostly based on Arabian Nights Tales. Thus, we had films made on ‘Alladin And His Magic Lamp’, ‘Ali Baba Chalis Chor’, ‘Sindbad The Sailor’, et al. Or, films based on mythology, in which every now and then demons, ghosts, and giants in outlandish outfits made their appearance, laughed uproariously before speaking in a booming voice to the hero or the villain.Frankly, we have not yet produced horror story writers of the caliber of Bram Stokar, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Shirley Jackson, M.R James et al.
