It is easy writing off a Hindi film attempting VFX by calling it inferior compared to Hollywood; after all, it’s cooler to watch ‘Godzilla’, ‘Jurassic Park’ or for that matter, the superhero flicks. I enjoy them as well but we perhaps don’t understand our budget is way below what they spend and there is also a dearth of professionals comparatively. Though things are improving and we have been experimenting with it, skeptics may disagree. Director Vikram Bhatt mostly known for the horror genre of films he is successful at brings us ‘Creature 3D’ and claims- Fear has a new face. Is the face creepy enough?
Bipasha Basu is Ahana Dutt- traumatized by a bad past; she has left Mumbai and set up a luxury boutique hotel in picturesque Himachal. She has taken a huge loan from a bank for the property in the midst of a forest. The first bunch of guests come with big expectations and the initial few days go fine till a honeymoon couple is attacked by a creature. The guy dies and the girl lives to tell reporters that it was a monster. Getting no help from the cops of the area, Ahana finds support (and love) in one of the guests (Pakistani Actor Imran Abbas) who has his own little secret. A panther is hunted down and just when Ahana thinks all is well, the real culprit shows up and kills a few other guests- the creature is a ‘brahmrakshas’. As per folklore and the Vedas, these were holy men who committed sins and were cursed by Lord Brahma. The bank threatens Ahana to seize the property and she now has just eleven days to kill the creature. A zoologist who has been doing research on the subject (Mukul Dev) and a junior forest officer join her to track it down. All the four of them have are seven bullets cleansed in holy water on Kartik Poornima and an old gun- the only way to put an end to it.
What works? The VFX, all done without any foreign intervention is good. The computer-generated creature is worth every penny and while you watch it, do stay away from comparisons. Bhatt gives the creature a lot of screen time and I liked that. I’m not one who likes to wait for an hour or so and by the time the thing shows up, I find myself not half as interested as I should have been. Also, the monster here is one that is mentioned in the Vedas. It isn’t just out of nowhere. The audience will sit up and listen to the origin as many should relate to it or find it interesting. The chase sequences, the face-offs, the 3D used to heighten the tension- Bhatt gets it all right; well, mostly. Like other movies of his, it is shot in beautiful locations and you think there isn’t really a need to film abroad.
What doesn’t work? Everything else! To start with, the performances are wooden. Then, the songs though not that bad (‘Saawan’ in the end credits is clearly the pick and hummable) were unnecessary.
The love angle and the sub-plot are such downers. Bhatt resorts to the same repetitive way of telling a story. So… you have a hill station, a lousy cop, a village sarpanch who warns of what will come next as the brahmrakshas was set free only because a peepal tree was cut down. At 2 hours and 15 minutes, ‘Creature 3D’ turns out to be quite a test for your patience. The second half drags at times and the climax is over-stretched. Dialogues are unintentionally funny.
Bipasha Basu hasn’t really evolved as an actress. If it wasn’t proved earlier, this is it. What she does here is exactly like what she did in Bhatt’s first ‘Raaz’, her second movie twelve years back. All she does is try to look gutsy; when she is not, she sobs a tear or two with the same expression. Even then, she still has screen presence unlike her co-star Imran Abbas who surely won’t bag any other good film here and should pack his bag. Home Calling! His voice is dubbed by Bhatt himself; something he does in many of his films. Mukul Dev is wasted in a role that could have shaped up well.
Watch it or not: Only if you want to check out the creature. It won’t disappoint!
At the Box-Office: ‘Finding Fanny’ will be preferred by the audience though not in single screens. Made on a medium budget, this one will still struggle to recover its costs. If it does, Bhatt should plan a sequel for sure. It will be interesting to watch a bigger and deadlier creature.
My Verdict: Staying true to the Director’s style, I have this hunch that the creature might be possessed by an evil spirit in the sequel. You never know! And I won’t mind!
Summary
My Rating
2.5
1.5 plus and… an extra 1 (yes, you read it right!) for the good VFX given the budget of the movie and the sheer effort of Vikram Bhatt for playing with Fear in all his films including this one.
