Ghost stories - Just in case it wasn't clear who is the better director.

Vinayak Ashok
Jan 26, 2020
4 min read

It is almost unfair to Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap that they had to do an anthology film with Dibakar Banarjee. The stark difference in quality is so evident that Banerjee's segment stands out like a nun in a brothel. After, Bombay Talkies and Lust Stories, it is difficult to believe that these three would do this again. The movie is definitely worth watching, just to see the way the four directors have approached the horror genre.

The "she was dead all along" trope:

Do you remember in middle school, whenever there is a discussion about ghost stories, most of the stories would end in a similar way - "the lady was dead from the beginning itself", "he was talking to a ghost and didn't realise it".

"The creepy lady in the creepy apartment was a ghost all along? I need to see more movies!"

Zoya Akhtar has taken that played out theme and slapped Jahnvi Kapoor on top of it. The segment gathers the viewer's attention in the beginning with a different setting of a dilapidated flat with an ailing resident. Jahnvi Kapoor plays the replacement home nurse who comes in to take care of the old lady. Some relationship drama happens and she finds out the lady was dead all along. It is that simple. Much like her segment in Lust Stories, Zoya Akhtar offers nothing new to the genre with her immature horror story. By normal anthology rules, this shouldn't have been the first segment. When you cannot divert the audience's attention with a story about the elite upper class and the spectacle of their lifestyle, you are left to fend for yourself with just your skills as a storyteller.

2 slow 2 douche

I must say, I enjoyed Anurag Kashyap's segment more than his Lust Stories counterpart. Unlike, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar, he didn't at least jump in with the creepy-ghost-in-a-manor story. He tries to derive horror from the paranoia of an expecting mother, fear of abortion and postpartum depression.

That being said, the segment felt self-serving with its overly complex storytelling method, disturbing visuals for the purpose of being disturbing, and a desaturated look throughout the film which only makes it more pseudo-intellectual. The viewer is sold on the idea at the beginning, but it feels too much of an effort to appreciate this movie as it progresses and eventually one stops caring altogether. It has some cool special effects though, that reminds us of The Black Swan.

More of an intellectual muscle-flexing than a horror movie.

A laser beam of social commentary

Dibakar Banerjee uses horror as a tool to invite the viewer to do some soul searching of their own. In my opinion, horror is best used in such a way, rather than being a standalone medium for jump scares. It is so interesting to notice that nobody else saw the chance to use horror as a metaphor for the current socio-political situation of India.

"Why do I have to always carry these morons?!"

A government officer arrives at night in a suburban village, only to find it abandoned. He encounters a young boy who tells him to be silent and not to move if he wants to live. The young boy takes him to a shelter where they are joined by a girl. Apparently, the villagers have been eaten by the people from the big town. The boy and the girl are the only ones left. It seems, the cannibals are gradually turning into beasts who cannot see, but smell and taste. They spare whoever is ready to eat human flesh and join them. The story unfolds to show their fates in this post-apocalyptic version of India.

Here Banerjee uses horror to paint a political picture of our current situation. While providing entertaining and horrifying visuals, he seamlessly builds the metaphor for extremist and fundamentalist political views. His segment is clever, scary and thought-provoking. Easily, the best of the four.

Elite glitz, Shaadi, Khandan and yes, there happens to be a ghost too.

This segment is exactly what you would imagine if Karan Johar directed a horror movie. Karan Johar fills this segment with all the usual horror tropes that Hollywood has abandoned long ago like the scary hand from outside the frame on your shoulder, jump scares, figures moving about in the dark unseen by the protagonist but making sure to be seen by the audience, and the worst of all - the ghost in the manor. He has made this into just another excuse to show his brand of entertainment, rife with objectification and opulence porn.

There isn't much to be said about this segment, except that with each creation Karan Johar is being his own caricature.

Nothing says horror like a Manish Malhotra bride.

Ghost Stories does an amazing job of exposing the limitations ( or lack thereof) of each director in this anthology. Horror acts as a screen or filter to take away the facade creators build around themselves to distract the viewers from their weaknesses, or acts as an enhancer in the hands of a master director. I wouldn't say who is who, because it would be unfair to Zoya, Anurag and Karan.

Rating:

That one intelligent child in a nursery class full of kids eating crayons.