HAUNTED 3D REVIEW

Horror has become Vikram Bhatt's synonym now (and it seems the filmmaker is in no mood to budge from it as of now). After giving spine-chilling, edgy films like RAAZ, 1920, SHAAPIT in the past, Vikram is back again with his loved genre with HAUNTED - 3D. And with his latest outing he takes horror to the next level in Indian Cinema. For the first time in the history of Bollywood we meet horror in 3D format.
The cast:

Rehan (Mahakshay Chakraborty), Meera (Tia Bajpai), Mr. Iyer (Arif Zakaria)

The storyline:

The story takes place during the ancient proposition of a haunted mansion called Glen Manor in an isolated hill-station. A real estate broker's son Rehan arrives to this ancient mansion to dispose it off due to his father's request. Rehan starts to observe flickering lights, screeching doors, tumbling chandelier, timeworn photo-frame, unsophisticated piano, dangling corpse, jarring screams all scoring to a song as the clock strikes 3.00 am in the night done by spirits.
One day he happens to see a book falling from the shelves and finds a letter in it. In the letter written by this gal Meera (Tia Bajpai) , it tells that she committed suicide because she was inhumanly raped by the spirit of her piano teacher (Arif Zakaria) whom she murdered in order to save herself while he tried to rape her when he was alive teaching piano in Meera's mansion. Since then, Meera's spirit is restricted in the haunted house by the evil spirit of her piano teacher for decades. Although Rehan does not share any personal contact with Meera, he is motivated to support her, only due to the almost century old letter and on his aim to sell this property.

What worked:

HAUNTED packs in spooky effects like the lights going off in the haunted mansion, creaky doors, the evil spirit jumping from nowhere et al that makes a desi horror film 'comprehensive' in the true sense.
Another prime reason why HAUNTED stays with you is, well, watching the story unfold in 3D. Bhatt merges the deadly combo of horror with 3D effectively.
Raju Rao's background score is excellent and cannot go unnoticed and promises to jolt you out of our seats.
Pravin Bhatt's cinematography is top notch.
Tia Bajpai the new comer and Mahakshay Chakraborty have done justice to the lead roles.

What didn’t:

If the writing is smart and wicked at most times, it gives away at a few places as well. Especially when [spoiler alert] the hero goes back in time and romances the heroine. The entire dance and song sequence in the middle of the night is outrageous and despicable simply because when you have fatality staring at you in your face, you just cannot dance and sing. It takes away the gravity of the goings-on. Actually, HAUNTED would've made a greater impact had it been a song-less film, since the songs act as an encumbrance in an otherwise almost perfect fare.
Besides, the rape sequence seems very tame by today's standards.

Overall:

Despite the flaws, HAUNTED doesn't erase the efforts of the rest of the film. It caters completely to those who love to get spooked. Go, get spooked!

Mumbai Masti Ratings: 3/5