After watching this latest horror flick from Bollywood most of the viewers would like to ask that why such films are still made without anything new or even interesting to offer to the audience? The answer to this simple question is that though not clearly visible, but there still exists a decent market for horror films in our country, (particularly in many smaller centers) where people even today love watching new horror movies made on the similar pattern started by the famous Ramsay Brothers. Moreover, there is a big and constant demand of horror movies in the home video circuit too which enables such projects to cover their costs and break-even.
The basic structure of horror films in our region normally remains the same, where a spirit or an aatma is in search of her revenge from the people related to her and then makes their life miserable with her own cult powers. A savior always enters the script as a Tantrik, College Professor or any other learned person who helps the family to get free from the evil clutches of the spirit and then the climax leaves you with something giving a hint of a sequel in store.
HELP also walks on the similar pattern with one new and interesting twist in the story written around the actual identity of the spirit. But sadly this novelty remains the only merit of the movie as the rest of its content is neither able to scare you nor it keeps you glued to your seats out of fear. Though it starts off with a promising sequence which forces you to be attentive, but then the promise remains unfulfilled in the later reels and the movie ends without making any kind of impact on the viewer. The climax also leaves many unanswered questions in the mind like what was the relationship between the spirit and the mirrors in which she is trapped in the end and from where did Bobby Deol learn all those rituals to trap her, when the actual knowledgeable professor had died.
Director Rajeev Mirani does come up with some well shot sequences in between, but along with his writers and cinematographer the influence of western cinema is clearly visible in his shots. For instance the twin sisters angle reminded me of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece "THE SHINING" (1980) and the Climax dealing with mirrors indicated its inspiration derived from "MIRRORS" (2008). The songs are just there as a mandatory clause, otherwise they were not even required in the narration and the background score serves the purpose fine. Out of the lead pair, Mughda shows huge improvement from all her previous acts and plays it well as the possessed girl. Bobby Deol, as her husband, once again tries hard to put up a good performance. Here I have to say that Bobby is a fine example of how a career can get adversely affected due to some wrong choices of projects at the right time. Shreyas Talpade in a special appearance as the psychic professor is adequate and Jyoti Dogra as the mother is impressive.
Overall, HELP is simply made as per the fixed rules of the horror genre in India. Hence, even if you are die-hard fan of the genre you can still easily wait for its Home Video release in the coming weeks.
However, the film and its twist in the tale gave me a brilliant thought to frighten the obsessed families who without giving it a second thought, right away decide to kill the girl child in their women's womb. So, next time anyone decides to do so, he should be ready to meet the spirit of the unborn girl child soon.
(Note : As informed, this is not the first movie to come up with the novel idea about the revenge of an unborn girl child. The idea was first adopted by another horror movie released in 2007 with the title "GAURI : THE UNBORN" featuring Atul Kulkarni, Rituparna Sengupta and Anupam Kher)
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