Aatma-hatya

Suparn Verma's Aatma, starring the in-form Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Bipasha Basu, opens with a promising title credits sequence to a theme song composed by Hitesh Sonik. But once the film begins, the honest attempt to deliver a product that could finally lift the jaded and stereotyped genre of horror movies loses its grip.

The film begins establishing an unseen father figure of Nawazuddin's character, quite ironically named Abhay, pampering his 8-year-old daughter Nia while being extremely harsh to his wife Maya (Bipasha). It is then revealed that Abhay has died in an accident following a bad divorce on account of domestic violence and mental harassment. However, his love for his daughter and her attachment to him has brought him back. And now, one by one he is going to decimate anyone who causes the slightest discomfort to his daughter, and his ultimate aim - to take Nia with him. The only thing stopping this powerful aatma from doing so, is the little girl's love for her mother - the same reason why Voldemort couldn't kill Harry, no?

At ninety minutes, the film moves at a brisk pace from sequence to sequence but the elements that induce the horror in the situations are extremely ordinary. Verma makes a great attempt to shun the genre specific stereotypes like the creaky door or the turning heads, but the devices used in the film are not that special either. After having created suspense around the ghost of Abhay, his first screen appearance happens when he murders one of Nia's teachers - a typical horror sequence where the ghost is seen only on one side of the mirror and does his business on the other. Certain elements have been sprinkled onto the narrative just to make sure it doesn't fall short of scaring you. For instance, an old woman in a scary make-up says lines like "woh aa gaya hai..woh apni beti ko lene aya hai". It shows the director's lack of confidence on the story to do the scaring.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is categorically miscast in the role as an upper-middle class father and although he sportingly does justice to the ghost part of him, his interactions while he is alive often remind you of the rural gangster that he was in GOW. Bipasha Basu is on the receiving end of most of the paranormal activity but you never truly feel any sympathy for her character because of her bland portrayal of it.

Finally, the litmus test that determines the success of any horror film is the following night's sleep. And even if you watch the last show of Aatma at an empty multiplex, by the time you drive home, you will have forgotten all the loud noises that temporarily scared you.

Rating - 2 out of 5

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on March 23, 2013