TLI Staff
New Delhi: The concept of undead or zombies has mostly been part of western literature and inspired many films and TV series in the west, most recent being The Walking Dead, Daybreak, iZombie, Dead Set to name a few. In India, however there are rare tales of the undead hidden in Indian mythology and one of such characters is Betaal.
The word betaal in Hindi means someone who sings or plays an instrument without rhythm. However, betaal in Hindu mythology is a dead person who’s used by evil spirits as a vehicle. One can compare it to vampire or a zombie in western literature.
So there comes Betaal Pachisi a collection of 25 stories surrounding the desi vampire. He is not an ordinary Pret, but a master storyteller who narrates King Vikram a story and asks him moral questions pertaining to the story’s characters.
Netflix’s upcoming series has a Betaal or zombie who leads the entire army of the undead after a squad of police enters the prohibited area of Betaal Mountain and plans to displace the inhabitants of Campa village in order to build a highway.
Villagers warn the policewallahs but they don’t pay heed. A woman warns the cop (Vineet Kumar) that every kid in the village knows that betaal pahaad has an evil spirit and it is cursed. Once you get the curse, it stays with you till the end and peneterates through your soul. The dead joins Betaal to be part of his army.
The plot
A remote village becomes the theatre of a breathless battle when a two-century-old Betaal, a British Indian Army officer, and his battalion of zombie redcoats are unleashed. With Indian police pitted against the undead army, hapless villagers are trapped in a horrific, edge-of-your-seat conflict.
After the mixed reception of Ghoul and Typewriter, Netflix is all set to bring its latest Indian original spooky series Betaal on May 24. The series is helmed by Patrick Graham, the director of Ghoul. It is produced by Shah Rukh Khan’s banner Red Chillies.
Going by the trailer, it looks like Betaal blends the elements of Indian mythology with those of western quite well and the end result seems like a visual treat. It will also remind you of Netflix’s first Indian original horror series Ghoul while the vampire teeth and bloodshot eyes have been borrowed from zombie movies of the west.
Betaal stars Viineet Kumar, Aahana Kumra, Suchitra Pillai, Jitendra Joshi, Manjiri Pupala, and Syna Anand and will start streaming from May 24.
Watch the trailer: