Bhooty Call – Bees Saal Baad

Bees Saal Baad (1962) is an adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, perhaps the most famous of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Since this is Bollywood, of course, there are some significant changes. Most notably, there’s no hound.

After the death of his uncle, Kumar Vijay Singh (Biswajeet) returns to his ancestral estate. The superstitious locals try to warn him away; years ago, his grandfather had preyed on the local girls, and since that time an angry ghost has been preying on the family. Kumar is the only one left.
Kumar isn’t afraid of ghosts, however, so he moves in anyway. And right on cue, spooky things begin to happen. Somewhere in the mansion, a woman is crying. And every night, at 9:30, the sound of anklets lures Kumar into the swamp.

The swamp is, in fact, remarkably crowded. At various times Kumar bumps into: his creepy neighbor Mohan (Sajjan), who is clearly up to something; his old friend Doctor Pandey (Madan Ouri), who lives across the swamp; bumbling detective Gopichand (Asit Sen), who hopes to catch the murderer and claim the reward; and spunky village belle Radha (Waheeda Rehman) and her elderly uncle Ramlal (Manmohan Krishna). In addition, Kumar’s creepy servant Lakshman (Dev Kishan) is sending nightly signals to someone.

Sharp eyed readers will have noticed a distinct lack of violin playing, drug addicted super detectives. (Gopichand really doesn’t count. He’s an idiot.) There is a Holmes analog in the film, but he’s in disguise, and doesn’t emerge to solve the case until near the very end. Instead, the film focuses on Kumar; it’s an interesting idea, an adaptation told from Henry Baskerville’s point of view.

The problem is, nobody cares about Henry Baskerville! Rather than watching a brilliant detective at work, we watch Kumar being scared but resolute, Kumar wooing Radha, and scene after scene after scene of Kumar bumping into people while wandering the swamp. Bees Saal Baad is very atmospheric, but it’s also incredibly slow.