At the end of every party, some friend or the other will ask me to tell the story of 바카라Inspector Khan바카라. Though I have narrated it at almost every party since I first heard the story in 2013, there will always be someone hearing it for the first time. It has now become a ritual of sorts. The lights are dimmed and a circle of eager listeners forms around me. I begin with the familiar words: 바카라This is a true story바카라Š바카라 The narrative follows the familiar contours to reach the jump-cut climax, eliciting a cry of shock from the new listeners. 바카라It always scared me,바카라 said an economist and colleague, who has heard 바카라InsÂpecÂtor Khan바카라 several times, after I narrated it at a dinner last Saturday. 바카라It still does.바카라 Her husband, also an economist, said: 바카라It never scared me, but I find it thrilling. It is also very enjoyable to watch the reaction of those hearing it for the first time.바카라 Â
This time, the first-time listener was a young friend who teaches English at the same university on the outskirts of Delhi, where I teach journalism. 바카라I find it difficult to sleep after listening to a ghost story,바카라 she said. 바카라This is because I live alone. Though I enjoy the thrill, I need someone to assure me that it is all fiction.바카라 The conversation turned to horror films. 바카라I like Japanese horror films,바카라 said a media studies scholar. 바카라Ju-On (1998), Ringu (1998).바카라 Since the beginning of this century, Japan바카라and South Korea바카라have consistently produced horror films that have also inspired Hollywood remakes. Â
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Someone at the party mentioned Tumbbad (2018), set in pre-Independence India and follows the fortune of one family who has access to the womb of the Goddess of Prosperity through a well in their ancestral home. The womb is also the hidÂeÂout of the goddess바카라s eldest child and the demÂon-god Hastar. According to legend, at the beginning of creation, Hastar had grasped all the gold in the world, but when he tried to also grasp all the food, the other gods attacked him. He was saved by his mother who hid him in her womb on the condition that no one will worship him. But the residents of Tumbbad, a village in MaharaÂshÂtra, build a temple to him because they can enter the womb of the goddess, lure Hastar with food, and steal his gold. 바카라I found it quite feminist,바카라 said my economist friend. 바카라The womb is, after all, the scariest place. The site of desire and fear.바카라 Â
Psychoanalysts and feminists have explored the idea of the womb as uncanny. In his essay The Uncanny (1919), Sigmund Freud tries to understand the meaning of the German words heimlich and unheimlich, which translate into 바카라homely바카라 and 바카라uncanny바카라, respectively, in English. He concludes: 바카라[H]eimlich is a word the meaning of which develops towards an ambivalence, until it finally coincides with its opposite, unheimlich. Unheimlich is in some way or other a sub-species of heimlich.바카라 In other words, the uncanny is nestled in that which is familiar. And what could be more familiar than the womb itself, from which we all emerge? For Freud, a vivid example of the uncanny for some people is the fear of being buried alive. He, however, claims that the source of this fear is actually the desire for the pleasure of intrauterine existence. What seems 바카라uncanny바카라 is actually pleasurable, and the tomb is transformed into the womb바카라like it is for Hastar, buried alive in the womb of his mother. Â
Directed by Rahi Anil Barve and Anand Gandhi, Tumbbad is a rare example of a successful horror film from Bollywood. Film scholars Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc, in their book Horror Films (2007), claim that horror films were a popular genre in India but only a small part of the country바카라s massive annual film output. One of the earliest examples of a successful horror film from the Hindi film industry was Mahal (1949). The film is important for many reasons, as film scholar RacÂhel Dwyer writes in her essay Bombay Gothic: On the 60th Anniversary of Kamal Amrohi바카라s Mahal: 바카라[T]he take-off point for the careers of MadhuÂbala, aged 16, and Lata Mangeshkar, aged 20; its great songs (though Khemchand Prakash was not to continue his music); as a key film in the career of its male star, Ashok Kumar, and its writer and director, Kamal Amrohi; as well as being one of the last films of the great Bombay Talkies studio.바카라 Â
The film did nothing to consolidate the horror genre in the Hindi film industry despite its success. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the genre was the monopoly of the Ramsay brothers who becÂame almost synonymous with low-budget horror films in Hindi. The seven sons of radio manufacturer and producer, F. U. Ramsay바카라Kumar, Gangu, Tulsi, Arjun, Shyam, Keshu, and Kiran바카라were a unique example of collaborative filmmaking, with each brother specialising in one or two departments of the trade. They made about 30 films, tasting success with Purana Mandir (1984), which was the second-highest-grossing film of the year. Â
In the years after the Ramsay brothers, few good or successful horror films have emerged from Bollywood. Ram Gopal Varma-directed Raat (1992) and Bhoot (2004) are exceptions that confirm the rule. Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), directed by Priyadarshan, inaugurated the horror-comedy genre, which would find further success in Go Goa Gone (2013) and Stree (2018). But success바카라commercial or critical바카라for horror films has been rare. For every Stree and Tumbbad, there are other unsÂuccessful ones바카라Phillauri (2017), Pari (2017), RooÂhi (2021), or Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (2022). With the rise of streaming platforms, there were some intÂeÂresting experiments such as Bubbul (2020), whiÂch drew on Bengali folklore to create a brooding atmosphere. Others such as Netflix바카라s Ghost Stories (2020)바카라a four-part anthology directed by some of India바카라s best film directors바카라failed miserably. Â
Perhaps one exception to this march of disappÂoÂintments was the 2018 Netflix original series Ghoul. Written and directed by Patrick Graham, the three-part series is set in a futuristic India, torn apart by sectarian violence. Film critic Tanul Thakur described it as 바카라a terrifying picture of HinÂdu rashtra바카라. Its central character, Nida (RadhÂika Apte), is a member of an anti-terror squad and a patriotic Muslim, who shows no sympathy for other Muslims바카라real or suspected 바카라anti-nationals바카라. She doesn바카라t even hesitate to hand over her fatÂher (S.M. Zaheer) to the state바카라s forces because she suspects him of being anti-national. Â
Much of the action of the film takes place at Meghdoot 31, a detention centre for subversive people. It is commanded by Colonel Sunil
DacuÂnha (Manav Kaul), who takes great pride in being a descendent of the Dacunhas of Goa, famed inteÂrrogators of the Goanese Inquisition. In an early scene, he shows Nida a cupboard in his office whiÂch is stocked with confession tapes. 바카라IntellecÂtuals, opposition, religious fanatics,바카라 he tells Nida. 바카라ShoÂwing kindness to these people... it바카라s a sign of weakness.바카라 The setting of the film is very important. Meghdoot 31 is created to be claustrophobic and disorienting. Its blackened windows prevent anyone from looking in and mess with the prisoners바카라 sense of time. It also plays havoc with the body clock of the soldiers. Â
Claustrophobia is essential to the horror of the film. Describing the set design of his horror masterpiece, The Shining (1980), Stanley Kubrick told Michel Ciment how the setting of his film바카라in a snowbound hotel바카라was essential to the horror. The characters바카라 inability to escape reflects the inability of the audience to escape from their seats. In Ghoul, Meghdoot 31 is a microcosm of the totalitarian society outside its concrete walls and barÂbed wires. In such a society, one can only be a tortÂurer or the tortured, the interrogator or the subject of interrogation. Â
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The film is also a lost moment for Bollywood. It was made at a time when the government had not yet censored streaming platforms, as it would a few years later with its OTT rules. These rules바카라and the public outrage바카라will ensure that shows critical of the government, such as Sacred Games (2018, 2019), Paatal Lok (2020), and Tandav (2021), are not made anymore. Â
There are other horrors now. Who needs ghost stories?
(Views expressed are personal)
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Uttaran Das Gupta teaches journalism at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat. His novel Ritual was published in 2020
