If you’ve been following this year’s Bhooty Call, you’ve probably
noticed that very few of the films reviewed really qualify as horror.
That was deliberate; ghosts show up in Bollywood in a wide variety of
contexts, and this year I wanted to showcase that while still ending the
month with something really scary. Despite the spooky DVD cover, though, Eight Shani (2006) (also known simply as Eight) is not that movie. It’s something else.
Raj (Raj Tara) sees dead people. All the time. This is a problem, because Raj is easily distracted; one glimpse of a ghost and he’ll wander off in pursuit, even if that means leaving his young niece unattended at the fun fair. This makes him a terrible baby sitter and also makes holding a job difficult, so Raj lives with his brother Suraj (Gulshan Grover) and sister-in-law Radha (Padmini Kolhapure) in their London home.
Apart from the ghosts, Raj is a fairly typical Bollywood hero. While his brother considers him useless, he has a good heart, the best of intentions, and a stupid hat. While Raj is very shy, he has attracted the attention of the beautiful Sadhavi (Surbhi Purohit). Sadhavi is a dedicated numerologist, and it’s her explanation of the number eight representing judgement and the god Shani that gives the film its name.
Despite being both supernaturally gifted and perpetually unemployed, Raj never sets himself up as an occult investigator. He has his own Kirlian camera and everything! Still, Raj is happy to help out friends in need; his method of laying ghosts to rest consists of convincing the haunted person to apologize to the ghost for whatever misdeed prompted the haunting in the first place. (Raj also advises apologizing to living people as soon as you realize you’ve done something wrong, as a means of preventing future hauntings. I can’t fault his logic.)
In the course of one of these investigations, Raj meets Sapna (Meghna Naidu). Sapna is very nice, but very gullible; Raj is able to trick her into believing that a nearby living person is in fact a ghost, despite the fact that she’s known one of the people in question since childhood, and despite the fact that Raj has already explained to her that his gift involves being able to see ghosts and that other people can’t. Still, she’s pretty, which makes Raj happy, she’s nice, which makes Radha happy, and her father is very rich, which makes Suraj happy. Sadhavi is less than thrilled, but she’s a good friend so she puts on a brave face.
At this point, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve spent a great deal of time talking about personal relationships, and haven’t even mentioned the ghost yet. Eight does the same thing. It isn’t until late in the film that the ghost of Kamini (Vastvikta) appears and starts menacing Suraj’s family, eventually driving them to leave home and move in with Suraj’s friend Balwant (Raju Kher) in the hopes of escaping her wrath. Moving does not work, and Raj can’t get Radha to tell him what her connection to Kamini is, so his normal methods are useless as well. He and Sadhivi try holding a naked seance, but all that accomplishes is driving a wedge between him and Sapna.
In the end, though, Eight isn’t really about the ghost, it’s about the family. I do not mean that the ghost is used as a metaphor to explore family issues, I mean the movie is about the family issues and also happens to have a ghost in it. This isn’t really a horror movie, it’s a family drama that uses horror trappings. The cinematography and background music reflect this; through judicious use of camera angles and lighting Bhoot turns Urmila Matondkar walking down a flight of stairs into something menacing, but Eight is well-lit throughout. It’s not a bad movie by any means, it’s just not scary.
Raj (Raj Tara) sees dead people. All the time. This is a problem, because Raj is easily distracted; one glimpse of a ghost and he’ll wander off in pursuit, even if that means leaving his young niece unattended at the fun fair. This makes him a terrible baby sitter and also makes holding a job difficult, so Raj lives with his brother Suraj (Gulshan Grover) and sister-in-law Radha (Padmini Kolhapure) in their London home.
Apart from the ghosts, Raj is a fairly typical Bollywood hero. While his brother considers him useless, he has a good heart, the best of intentions, and a stupid hat. While Raj is very shy, he has attracted the attention of the beautiful Sadhavi (Surbhi Purohit). Sadhavi is a dedicated numerologist, and it’s her explanation of the number eight representing judgement and the god Shani that gives the film its name.
Despite being both supernaturally gifted and perpetually unemployed, Raj never sets himself up as an occult investigator. He has his own Kirlian camera and everything! Still, Raj is happy to help out friends in need; his method of laying ghosts to rest consists of convincing the haunted person to apologize to the ghost for whatever misdeed prompted the haunting in the first place. (Raj also advises apologizing to living people as soon as you realize you’ve done something wrong, as a means of preventing future hauntings. I can’t fault his logic.)
In the course of one of these investigations, Raj meets Sapna (Meghna Naidu). Sapna is very nice, but very gullible; Raj is able to trick her into believing that a nearby living person is in fact a ghost, despite the fact that she’s known one of the people in question since childhood, and despite the fact that Raj has already explained to her that his gift involves being able to see ghosts and that other people can’t. Still, she’s pretty, which makes Raj happy, she’s nice, which makes Radha happy, and her father is very rich, which makes Suraj happy. Sadhavi is less than thrilled, but she’s a good friend so she puts on a brave face.
At this point, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve spent a great deal of time talking about personal relationships, and haven’t even mentioned the ghost yet. Eight does the same thing. It isn’t until late in the film that the ghost of Kamini (Vastvikta) appears and starts menacing Suraj’s family, eventually driving them to leave home and move in with Suraj’s friend Balwant (Raju Kher) in the hopes of escaping her wrath. Moving does not work, and Raj can’t get Radha to tell him what her connection to Kamini is, so his normal methods are useless as well. He and Sadhivi try holding a naked seance, but all that accomplishes is driving a wedge between him and Sapna.
In the end, though, Eight isn’t really about the ghost, it’s about the family. I do not mean that the ghost is used as a metaphor to explore family issues, I mean the movie is about the family issues and also happens to have a ghost in it. This isn’t really a horror movie, it’s a family drama that uses horror trappings. The cinematography and background music reflect this; through judicious use of camera angles and lighting Bhoot turns Urmila Matondkar walking down a flight of stairs into something menacing, but Eight is well-lit throughout. It’s not a bad movie by any means, it’s just not scary.
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