Ghost Stories
Director: Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar
Cast: Sobhita Dhulipala, Janhvi Kapoor, Mrunal Thakur, Surekha Sikri, Vijay Varma, Avinash Tiwary, Bidita Bag, Aditi Bhatia, Sukant Goel, Pavail Gulati, Kusha Kapila, Sharad S. Kapoor, Raghuvir Yadav
Ghost Stories, are you kidding me, dost? I think Zoya, Anurag, and Karan are pulling a fast one on us except Dibakar who took it seriously and churned out a short film that kind of justifies the title. Well, trust your grandmother to tell a better story and the next time these four (filmmakers) come together for another anthology (maybe Funny Stories), watch The Kapil Sharma Show instead.Some of them might be the fan of my childhood favourite Aahat. Watch the titles and you will know why.
In Zoya Akhtar’s film the poor Janhvi Kapoor tries her best to give a nuanced performance–she gets the accent and the body language of the character right. You can’t take your eyes off her as she takes care of the granny–feeds her, bathes her etc. Her transformation from a nurse to a seductive mehbooba waiting for her lover, her sorrows melting away from her eyes, and in the end the utter disbelief that swims in her eyes back and forth before settling into a deep shock.
Janhvi’s performance is brilliant alright but what about the story? It crawls (won’t tell you like who) and begs to be moved forward as both viewers and Janhvi’s character wait to know their fate.
The film is released at the stroke of the midnight hour on New Year. Messages are pouring in but I decide to continue watching the lackluster affair and then comes Anurag Kashayap’s short.
A man clicks the photo from a polaroid and waits for it to dry and the camera stays on the camera for a full one minute. A nurse runs, the man runs. And then…much to our relief Sobhita is in the frame and plays a doting mother..wait a mausi to the little cartoon-addict who also tells beautiful stories. She also has a secret obsession. Feeding daana to crows and having a room full of dolls.
She is pregnant and the story moves forward suggesting she’s in a troubled state of mind. Her newphew is trying to add to his mausi’s trouble in his own way. Hint: he doesn’t want to share mausi’s love with anybody.
Sobhita Dhulipala who was last seen in Netflix’s Bard of Blood and shot to fame with Amazon Prime’s Made in Heaven like always is a delight to watch in the role of a psychologically troubled woman who thinks she can never be a mother because she had destroyed the eggs of a bird in her childhood. But the story of the Anurag Kashyap’s short film itself lacks the punch.
Well, as the story veers towards end, it gets more and more disgusting and some of you might not be able to look at what’s in store.
Dibakar Banerjee’s short film makes more sense than others but it has its share of disgust-inducing scenes that you wish you had not seen. Banerjee’s protagonist visits a village to study about children’s poor academic performance there and realises that barring the two children, all the other people in village are flesh-eating monsters. Maybe, Banerjee has a deeper layer to the story and leave us guessing who these monsters really are. It also is pacier than the other and keeps you wide awake even at 1:30 in the night.
Karan Johar’s film is last and takes a spooky dig at his own family dramas. A newly wed bahu is welcomed into the family with much love and has the perfect husband except she’s not ready to believe that the family members are still in touch with her husband’s dead grandmother. Mrunal Thakur’s Ira might get the best ghost bahu award of the year though.
In all, you don’t need to watch Ghost Stories to boast about the latest movies you have seen to your friends.
Here’s the brief storyline of each of the short film:
Zoya Akhtar
A nurse is sent to a mansion for taking care of an old bed ridden granny who’s very infrequently visited by her children. She lovingly takes care of the elderly auntie ji till she notices some strange noises in the night and the old lady’s suspicious behaviour. Her messed up love affair with a married man is only adding to her worries.
The old lady frantically calls her at night despite taking sleep aid. What’s cooking in the lonely, desolate mansion?
Anurag Kashyap
A psychological tale, it’s dark, disgusting and confusing. Sobhita Dhulipala’s obsession with crows and love for children gets clubbed and leads to disastrous consequences. But does a little kid who happens to be the woman’s nephew has something to do with her troubles?
It’s not for the faint-hearted with some of the grotesque sequences. Barring the final few minutes, the narrative is very ordinary.
Dibakar Banerjee
This one has a better story than the rest. A man comes to a village to study why all children fail in exams. Amused by the strange stories of two children, he realises that the truth is even darker as he visits the school and gets nearly eaten up. It all could be a dream but the end suggests it’s really not.
Karan Johar
Girl meets boy and agrees for an arranged marriage. As their courtship continues, she finds out the man is closer to the version of her dream man except one thing. He takes advice about everything from his grandmother who died 20 years back.
The two get married and their first night is interrupted by the granny who the guy claims cannot go to sleep before she hears ‘good night granny from him.’ Except the girl can’t see or hear the granny. She freaks out and decides to launch an investigation into the causes of granny’s death but doesn’t realise she is making the biggest mistake of her life by doing that.