Movie Review: Amavas

One would have liked to know the minutes of the meetings between the writers of Amavas and its director. Because the film changes genres almost at will. Just when you think you’ve pegged it down and finally it will continue with one form, it changes gears and becomes something else. What it does become in the end is something so ludicrous that you can only laugh at it. 

It starts off as a Rebecca spin-off and you begin to think there might be some meat in the film. However, it segues into revenge drama mode and then suddenly deviates from it and becomes a murder mystery. After continuing in that vein for a while, it takes a sudden turn to become a supernatural horror film. You sigh with relief as it ends on that note, without adding any more twists to it. In between, it also tries to be a romance but the music just doesn’t add the required sparkle. 

Karan (Sachiin Joshi) and Aahana (Nargis Fakhri) are engaged. After going through a family album, she comes across the fact that her super rich beau has a summer house on the outskirts of London and insists on going there. The so called summer house, built on the lines of the Wayne Mansion, is gloomy as hell and becomes a nightmare inducing place where things tend to go bump in the night on regular basis. Karan begins to get migraines and we come to know that he has been seeing a shrink (Mona Singh) for a number of years. Ironically, it’s Mona Singh’s character who believes in ghosts the most, giving the logic that if God exists than the Devil exists as well. She believes that mantras and holy symbols can drive off the evil spirits and its largely thanks to her our two protagonists are able to combat the spirit that possesses Joshi. 

The film suffers from a lack of coherent screenplay, as also clinical editing. The director tries to throw every trick in the book to send some chills down your spine but only succeeds in making a khichdi of it. The most ridiculous aspect of the film is the ghost. We come to know it isn’t motivated by revenge but a desire to lead a rich life. It’s said that good living is the best revenge so maybe the director was playing some subtle games here. The SFX is spotty. The scene where the ghost finally leaves Karan’s body again doesn’t inspire fear but laughter. All this could have been redeemed if the two leads had put in some life into their performances. But both Sachiin and Nargis look disinterested in the film and just go through the motions. On top of it, they don’t share a chemistry, so their courtship scenes too are just awkward. 

We learn from Amavas that a Gothic mansion, jump cuts galore and red herrings aplenty thrown into the mix sadly don’t translate into a horror film. The unintentional hilarity that ensues would have suited a horror spoof -- if only that was the director’s intention...