1920 London (2016) is not exactly a sequel to 1920. The movies in the 1920 franchise are unrelated stories, the only real connection being the basic premise of people being possessed by ghosts in a historical setting. In this case, the historical setting is London in 1920, or at least London in a vague year which is supposed to be 1920 but includes costume and design elements drawn from the late Victorian era all the way to the early 1960s. However, I don't think historical accuracy was a real priority.
Newlyweds Shivangi (Meera Chopra) and Veer (Vishal Karwal), an honest to goodness Rajastani princess and prince, are happily settled in London. Veer is just finishing up his law degree, and everything is wonderful. . . until a package from home arrives, containing a mysterious amulet. Suddenly there are whispers in the night and shadows on the stairs, and everything takes a turn for the spooky.
Now, I've seen a lot of these "possessed by a ghost movies: the original 1920, Bhoot, Raaz, Machli Jal Ki Rani Hai, and those are just the ones that I can think of off the top of my head. Most of them start in the same way; a young couple experience some sort of life change which results in the wife being left at home, at first everyone thinks she's going a bit Yellow Wallpaper, but it turns out that she's possessed, so her husband must team up with an unconventional spiritual advisor to drive out the angry spirit. It is a surprisingly gendered subgenre.
But that is not what happens here. Veer hears strange noises at night and discovers an empty rocking chair, and Veer suddenly starts behaving strangely, eventually leaving him nearly comatose and wracked with extreme muscle spasms. Shivangi rushes him to the hospital, and the doctors diagnose tetanus, but Shivangi's servant Kesar Maa (Sushmita Mukherjee) notices that all the portraits of Veer in the house have developed spooky blacked-out eyes, so she diagnoses ghost, and suspects that Veer's stepmother is responsible.
Shivangi returns to Rajastan to consult with her family, and the family hires a Tantric (Gajendra Chauhan), who attempts an intercontinental exorcism involving the secret shadow world that lies behind the mirror. (Not a particular mirror, all mirrors.) He fails, and tells the family to seek out a more powerful Tantric, Mewar Baba (Sharman Joshi.) This is a problem, because back when Mewar Baba was plain old humble shepherd Jai Singh Gujjar, he was Shivangi's star crossed lover. (This movie puts the "ex" into exorcist!)
Since the breakup involved Shivangi's testimony sending him to prison for a crime he did not commit, Jai is reluctant to help. Shivangi eventually wins him over by reminding him that he would agree to help literally anybody else, and the pair are off to London. In order for the exorcism to work, Shivangi must complete a series of dangerous rituals, but there's something Jai is not telling her, and she's not being entirely honest with him either.
I can't really say that the choice of which spouse gets possessed utterly transforms 1920 London; it definitely impacts the film, but in the end , the plot is fairly typical for a bhoot movie. (Apart from the other big twist.) Still, there are some decent scares here, including a very tense scene involving a lemon, and it is interesting to see which genre elements are played with, and which ones are played straight.
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