MOVIE: Shivangi (Meera Chopra) comes from a royal family in Rajasthan and is married to a prince named Veer (Vishal Karwal). They receive a necklace from their hometown which casts a vicious spell on him. He is possessed by a daayan and the only man who can help is Shivangi’s ex-lover Jai (Sharman Joshi). Can he be saved?

REVIEW: There isn’t an inkling of innovative thinking in the third installment of the 1920 series. The best thing that can be said about it is that it will remain one of the year’s funniest films. Blood talk, daayans and jaadu tona are all in vogue this season (ahem!) but in the horror genre, these things are so passe. One look at the daayan and the first thing that will pop in your head is ‘For Devil’s Sake, someone get the poor woman a stylist’. With her sense of make-up, anyone would be looked down upon by their peers. No wonder she rages, roars and rumbles to find herself a soul.

A haunted mansion, rocking chairs, creaky sounds, a damsel in distress, a possessed man, an exorcist are all extremely gimmicky. But Vikram Bhatt prefers relying on these over-sold elements even in 2016. From the first frame itself, you get a hint of how ridiculous this will turn out to be but you sit in the hope that probably there will at least be one good enough scene that will scare you. Alas, no luck at that.

Director Tinu Suresh Desai redeems himself only because he gives us enough things to laugh about. There are corny dialogues that provide some comic relief. And the visual of a flying Sharman ala Shaktiman, will have you in splits. Clearly, the actor sleepwalks through his role and a good pay cheque seemed like his only impetus to see this through the end. Meera is abysmal and the rest of the actors with their grim voices are not worth mentioning.

As for the daayan, her story is too flimsy. She could’ve found a better script on prime time and after this disaster of a film, she should really consider a career shift.52141953