Over-reliance on a spooky score and clunky pacing mean that Vishal Furia’s remake of his own film simply reiterates the original’s dubious talking points
Vishal Furia’s long-awaited Hindi remake of his Marathi-language horror Lapachhapi from 2017 stays true to the original’s spirit, marrying the psychological uncertainties of pregnancy with the eerie atmosphere of rural isolation. Buried in the middle of a vast sugarcane field where one can get lost among the towering reeds is a simple house that doubles as a temporary hideaway from debt collectors for young city couple Hemant (Saurabh Goyal) and eight-month pregnant Sakshi (Nushrratt Bharuccha)
The place actually belongs to their chauffeur and his wife, whose initial hospitality goes along with gendered prejudices. They insist, for example, that Sakshi should eat only after her husband has finished his meal. As strange visions and noises soon abound, the refuge becomes a site of horror, plunging Sakshi into the midst of ghostly manifestations, traumatic familial history, and even shamanic rituals.