Aman (Aditya) proposes to Kaaya (Shweta). While all things are going utmost romantic, to their dismay, the two meet an accident. Kaaya gets injured while nothing happens to Aman. Kaaya’s parents unveil to her how their family is under a curse of a Brahmin for 300 years. Following the curse, no girls can get married in Kaaya’s family. And if they attempt to, they will eventually be killed. A buri aatma will haunt them to death.
Nonetheless, Aman is not going to give up his love at any cost. He is courageous enough to say that he will do anything and everything under the sun to destroy the curse and bring back his love to him. He seeks help from the professor (Rahul Dev) who is researching on physical energy in the universe. Though the professor refuses to help Aman, he accepts to guide him after Aman proves him that he is brave enough to take up any dare-devil tasks for his love.
Their journey thus begins.
Director Bhatt has certainly grown from his 1920 days because there were enough terror moments to get you on the edge of your seats quite often. Though Bhatt follows his Raaz style of going through the dark alleys, forest woods and foggy atmosphere, this however doesn’t stereotype the movie. The sound effects are cuttingly sharp to scare the hell out of people unexpectedly.
Bhatt is abetted strongly by the cinematography by his father Pravin Bhatt. The sets created in the movie needs a special mention because it compliments the screenplay and the whole theme of the movie. Raju Rao’s background score is as required for a horror film. It is the sound effects that actually scare you in the movie, not the whole plot or the story.
Some of the scenes are shot very creatively. The mercury rises in you body in scenes like the one inside a library where Aman fights with the bad spirit to prove the professor how he can get through any hurdles. Similarly, Kaaya’s first encounter with the spirit leaves you biting your nails. A half an hour climax is equally rich in terror. Bhatt has done a superb job in bringing fear symbolically. It’s most of the time his cinematography and sounds that develop the horror feel.
However, some scenes during the post-interval should have been shortened by half an hour. Aman’s fighting with the spirit to destroy the curse inside a palace, which is 300 years old, is little elaborated and exaggerated.
For once it doesn’t seem like it’s the first movie Aditya Narayan is doing. The singer turned actor delivers his dialogues promisingly in his debut role. Besides, the bonus is to listen to the songs sung by the actor himself. Newcomer Shweta seems overshadowed by Aditya. It may appear so because she has very less to do in the second half of the movie, which is after she goes in a coma. Another new star Shubh Joshi equally shares the screen promisingly while Rahul Dev fits in properly for his serious professor’s cast.
If you are among those who complain Bollywood has nothing to scare you anymore, get your seat belts fastened tight as Shaapit comes to you to take you to the world of spirits and souls, leaving you holding the seats tight.
Shaapit is being screened at Jai Nepal Cinema Hall.
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