SPOILER WARNING: The following article provides a full analysis of all four segments from 2020’s Ghost Stories. If you have not yet watched the Indian horror movie with your Netflix subscription, act like you would in a haunted house and proceed with caution.
Only recently, I became interested in Bollywood movies, but I have had an undying (or undead?) love for horror for most of my life. Thus, I was eager to discover what sorts of thrills Indian cinema would have to offer, and was certainly intrigued when I came across a scary movie on Netflix called Ghost Stories.
I love anthology films and could not think of a better choice for my next exploration of Indian cinema than this one from the makers of 2018’s Emmy-winning romantic anthology, Lust Stories. While I would say the flick is worth a recommendation if you love all things spooky and have two and a half hours to spare, I feel inclined to warn anyone particularly partial to ghost stories not to expect a purely spectral experience from the ironically titled anthology.
In fact, if you ask me, the strongest segments the film has to offer are not very ghostly at all. Allow me to explain by taking you through my thoughts regarding each untitled short film featured in Ghost Stories, from beginning to end.
The First Ghost Story Is Nothing Special
Remember that stretch of time when every horror flick wanted to shock audiences with an ending like the twist in the M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Sixth Sense, to the point where it wasn’t shocking anymore? Well, it seems that period lasted a bit longer than we realized, and the first segment of Ghost Stories, from director Zoya Akhtar, is the latest bit of evidence I have uncovered.
Janhvi Kapoor plays Sameera, a live-in nurse who ultimately discovers the creepy, elderly woman (played by Surekha Sikri) she has been assigned to care for has actually been dead the whole time she was there. In my opinion, this is a frustratingly uninspired conclusion to an already underwhelming story, with no help from a wedged-in subplot involving Sameera’s dissatisfied love life that amounts to absolutely nothing by the end.
So, while I cannot say that things were off to a great start for me, at least I could say this was not one of the many horror anthology movies that start off with their best work, only to become increasingly more disappointing with each following segment. In fact, I would say Ghost Stories achieves quite the opposite… initially.
I Dug The Second Segment, A Surreal Existentialist Thriller
I found a lot more to be satisfied by in Anurag Kashyap’s segment, especially in terms of its imaginative efforts. I truly never knew what to expect from this story, and was stunned by its unsettling imagery that has genuinely stuck with me ever since.
It stars Sobhita Dhulipala as Neha, a married woman whose struggle to have a child is worsened by her delusional conviction that she is transforming into a giant bird. However, there is an apparent, genuine supernatural cause to her difficulty with conception, as her young, envious nephew, Ansh (Zachary Braz), has figured out a way to curse her with infertility.
So, we have a pregnancy nightmare (a theme that, despite being a male without children, never fails to get under my skin), a body horror movie, and an evil child thriller all rolled into one here. While I was admittedly perturbed that only the second segment of Ghost Stories was lacking spirituality, I would call it the film’s first winning tale due to that killer combination.
My Favorite Segment Is A Socially Conscious Creature Feature
I found that most other people who have seen Ghost Stories agree with my choice for its absolute best segment, which, once again, has no ghosts in sight… in a more literal or clear-cut sense, at least. The third tale, from director Dibakar Banerjee, is a startling, suspenseful, and brutal creature feature that, like any of the best tales about monsters, has more to say underneath.
It involves an unnamed man (played by Sukant Goel), who stumbles onto a village that is completely empty, save a boy (played by Aditya Shetty) and a girl (Eva Ameet Pardeshi), who claim that the rest of the locals have either been eaten by the girl’s beastly father (Gulshan Devaiah) or have survived by allowing themselves to undergo the same transformation as he. However, just as the man is about to suffer a grisly fate by the eaters, he wakes up and is greeted by people who explain that the village became deserted after it was labeled inferior and burned down.
With a powerful commentary on societal oppression and an intense execution of its overtly supernatural elements, I believe Banerjee’s segment could have worked as its own feature. In fact, there were times I wished I were watching the extended version of this short instead of Ghost Stories – a feeling that grew more pervasive with the concluding segment.
The Final Segment Is Pretty Ridiculous
I suppose Ghost Stories saves itself from being a complete misnomer with bookend segments involving the afterlife. However, if it were me, I would have gone out with a bang and placed Banerjee’s segment last instead of Karan Johar’s short, which is easily my least favorite.
In it, Mrunal Thakur (who reminded me a lot of Superman’s new Lois Lane actor Rachel Brosnahan, especially in her smile), plays Ira, whose arranged marriage with Dhruv (Avinash Tiwary) is tainted by the fact that he still talks to and plays “Peek-a-boo” with his grandmother’s domineering spirit. She refuses to believe that “Granny” haunts and rules her new home, sealing her ultimate downfall when the maid poisons her, sending her to an afterlife she shares with others who doubted “Granny.”
At first, I thought this romantic and brightly lit segment started off as a refreshing change of pace from the pitch black tone of the previous segment. However, I quickly found it too silly to take seriously and not funny enough to believe the comedy was ever intentional.
While I would not call this one of the best horror movies I have seen on the platform, I think I would say it is worth it to stream Ghost Stories on Netflix, especially for Bollywood fans who like a sense of variety when they watch something spooky.
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