Bandh Darwaza (1990) is sometimes billed as "The Indian Version of Dracula," but that's wrong on two levels. First, there have been multiple Indian adaptations of Bram Stoker's over the years; I've reviewed a bunch of them. Second, and more importantly, Dracula has an actual plot.
The demon Nevla (Aniruddh Agarwal) certainly looks the part, though, spending the entire movie dressed as Bela Lugosi. Nevla lives (or unlives) in the cursed Black Mountain, surrounded by a gang of misfit cultists, and every night he turns into a big bat and hunts for blood.
.png "As you do.")
Meanwhile, the Thakur Pratap Singh (Vijayendra Ghatge) and his wife Lajjo (Beena Banerjee) are hoping to have a child, and they've tried exactly one thing, visiting every temple they can find to seek divine intervention. The family maid, Mahua (Aruna Irani), is secretly a member of the cult, and takes lajjo aside and offers Nevla's help. Lajjo is so desperate that she agrees, and they visit the Black Mountain together. There's a ritual, Lajjo is hypnotized, and Neval makes his offer - she will have a child. If the child is a boy, she can consider it a free gift. If it's a girl, then the child belongs to the Black Mountain. Lajjo agrees (though I do not think that an agreement made under the influence of spooky vampire hypnosis wouldn't hold up in court.) Then Nevla takes very direct action to produce said child. (I also don't think spooky vampire hypnosis counts as consent. Nevla is a bad guy.)
.png "Infertility is complex, and this kind of attitude does not help.")
The child is born, and it's a girl. Mahua demands that the wife turn the baby over, and when Lajjo refuses, she poisons her. The wife lives just long enough to confess everything to the Thakur. He storms the Black Mountain with his men and a gun, and apparently wins, but the movie immediately jumps ahead several years.
.png "\"And not like me in any way!\"")
Thakur's daughter is now a young adult named Kamya (Kunika Sadanand), and she is introduced to the audience in her room, working out in leotard and leggings, as the comic relief servant Gopi (Johny Lever!) spies on her from just outside her door, firmly establishing the film's exploitation credentials.
.png "Fair.")
Kamya is in love with, or perhaps fixated on, her childhood friend Kumar (Hashmat Khan), but Kumar only has eyes for Sapna (Manjeet Kullar). One night Sapna is driving home through the spooky woods when she meets a strange woman (Shayamalee) who needs a ride to the Black Mountain. When she drops the woman off, she discovers that the Vanishing Hitchhiker left her book behind, so she tries to return it, only to discover the cult, now led by Mahua, performing a human sacrifice. She runs away.
.png "No reason at all.")
Kumar and her other friends don't believe her story, and eventually Kumar insists on taking her to the Black Mountain to prove that nothing happened. They arrive discover the hidden evil temple with its sacrificial altar and enormous bat statue, and since there's no blood on the altar he smugly declares that he was right all along and there's nothing suspicious there. Sapna does discover the book, though, and takes it away with her.
.png "And therefore nothing suspicious at all about this place,")
The book turns out to be full of evil spells, and Kumar still insists that it's nothing unusual. When Sapna is alone the Vanishing Hitchhiker returns to ask for her book back, but when Kumar appears she's already vanished, along with the book. The book winds up in Kamya's hands, though. Kamya uses a spell to summon Kumar, but Sapna and her brother Anand (Satish Kaul) arrive in time to interrupt. Kamya hides, and the pair bring Kumar to his senses.
The cult invites Kamya to join a ritual at the Black Mountain, but it's all a ruse to use her blood to reanimate Nevla. It works. Nevla is back (though a bit more slimy than he used to be) and Kamya winds up as his hypnotized bride, alternately chained up, sleeping in a glass coffin, or sent out to gather more women for Nevla.
.png "This is a genuinely great shot.")
And then the movie spins its wheels for a long time. Sapna and Kumar try to rescue Kamya but fail, more than once. Kamya lures Anand's wife Bhanu (Anita Sareen) to the Black Mountain, then she escapes before being lured back again. There are several trips to the Black Mountain and back, and nobody ever makes a plan or thinks to bring any weapons, until finally (finally!) the cult makes an attempt to kidnap Sapna directly, which they could have done at any time. (Sapna actually acquits herself pretty well; she's a better fighter than Kumar.)
.png "Vampires are drawn to headlights.")
The Thakur finds out about the vampire situation, and he brings new ideas to the table, like "make a plan" and "carry holy symbols" and "get help" and suddenly our heroes start having a lot more success. If this was Dracula, they would have had access to Mina Harker compiling available information and making plans accordingly, and the movie would have been twenty minutes long. But it's not Dracula.
.png "We could have done that at any time.")
This isn't Dracula, but it does resemble a gender-flipped Veerana. It has many of the same beats, and includes similar tropes, but there's a lot more wheel-spinning, Nevla doesn't have the magnetic charm of the earlier movie's Jasmine, and the evil lair decor isn't nearly as good. Bandh Darwaza is a fine choice if you're in the mood for Ramsay vampires, but there are other options.
