Mumbai, June 07: Thank God for full moon nights. And werewolves, vampires and beastly women with things that go bump (uh-huh) in the dark.
To the uninitiated, I also have fang marks on my neck (now, now, no personal questions on that please), and my dream honeymoon spot would be Transylvania. At the castle of King Vlad (alias: Dracula) - also known as the Impaler.
Raison d'etre? Because I've been weaned on horror, terrible tales of historical gore and on blood of young virgins.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not some rampaging, ravaging werewolf or bat(man); just a lover (an avid one at that) of the Gothic, the mystic and the (Stephen) King-ly.
Stories with bloodlust and fables of beast-lore always intrigued me more than Sunday school stories, and Koontz always excited me more than Blyton.
Which is why I was always after Ram Gopal Verma (and all the other makers I knew) to make a true-blue, honest-to-goodness horror flick.
I even went and bought tickets in black for the shot-in-one-bungalow, Ramsay horror films-in which men in funny masks attempted to scare us all. But nothing satisfied me as much as the A class Western horror films. Be it Exorcist, Omen, Friday The 13th, Halloween and their ilk. Even the low budget Nightmare On Elm St, Blairwitch Project and Evil Dead seemed far classier and interesting than the Guest Houses and the Hotel and the Sannatas.
It was Ramu's attempt at making one of the genres, Raat, which had completely floored me. It was well made, slick and scary in bits. And it was a great departure from the norm. I loved it. But the box office conscious Ramu hated it.
"Please don't remind me of Raat. That is one attempt of mine I want to forget," was always RGV's embarrassed response to my gushing about the film whenever I asked him why he didn't make another like it.
I always told him that he should rate the film according to what newness it brought to the marquee, not the jingle at the box office. It is only now that Ramu seems to have gotten over his embarrassment sufficiently enough to cast his baton at Satan's lot again.
Bhoot is a terrific return to form of one of India's 'different' makers. And the fear factor is so high in it that it could give any Hollywood horror a shiver down its spine. "Scariest film I've ever seen," said one family member of mine, who went on to scream all night post the night show and insisted the lights remain on.
"I almost shat in my pants," said one so-called 'brave' colleague of mine from the office. Thank God he didn't return to his desk, until the next morning.
"Very scary, very hip, very slick," was the attempted "cool" retort of a film reviewer trying to show he wasn't petrified. That he had a haircut the same day (maybe the hair standing on ends would be a deadly giveaway) had another hair-raising tale to tell.
The fact is that the scary story had hit a home run, and it spoke volumes for the way RGV had handled the subject. There is a very thin line between the scary and the ridiculous and a good director has to take care not to cross it. Ramu has done just that. Also, that he has sterling, ensemble cast in Urmila, Ajay, Rekha, Fardeen, etc., lends credibility to the project.
Suddenly, to do a horror film is not something to be ashamed of. That something only a down hill actor would deign (feign?) to do. Unlike in Hollywood, where every star worth his salt has done blood'n'gore flick. From Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Nicholas Cage, to all the top actresses, they have all donned cloaks and done the dagger act sometime or the other. And successfully so.
Back here, only Aks attempted a supernatural thriller with a big cast. But now with Bhoot showing the way, surely all the big banners will jump onto the bandwagon and experiment with this most (un)hallowed of genres.
Maybe we will see SRK play vampire killer, or Aamir a werewolf. Even Hrithik a monster? And the heroines... well, they will continue to look wide-eyed and scared.
But here too Ramu's Company is ahead. Already his next production is the six-episode thriller Darna Mana Hai.
Is it a warning to the 'others'? Probably.
As for me, no one can be happier.
Bloody days are here again. Happy Halloween!