1970s Foreign Horror Part Thirty-Two (Ramsay Brothers Edition)

DO GAZ ZAMEEN KE NEECHE

(1972)

Overall: MEH

 

Serving as the first of many subsequent horror films from the Ramsay brothers Tulsi and Shyam, Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche, (Two Yards Under the Ground), suffers from many of the prerequisite failings that low-budget genre works from the era did, particularly those that try to meld Western tropes and melodrama with Eastern mores and folkways.  This particular Bollywood example is more bog-standard than exploratory for its cultural backdrop, essentially being an Indian variation of greedy family members offing one of their own in order to get their hands on copious amounts of cash in a locked safe.  There are no horror bits whatsoever until ninety minutes in when Surender Kumar's wealthy protagonist succumbs to poisoning at the hand of Shobhna; a woman that he saved from being raped, had a romantic moment with, and whose honor he tried to salvage by marrying her.  Unfortunately for him, Shobhna, her other love interest, and her uncle scheme to take advantage of her good fortune, yet unfortunately for the later crop of money-grubbing characters, Kumar decides to resurrect himself as a zombie.  There is no build up to this reveal, and the film merely becomes a haphazard dump of arbitrary cliches from there, where Kumar's animated corpse sometimes behaves like one, sometimes has the supernatural powers of a poltergeist, and can appear and reappear anywhere at will.  This is all before the rug-pull Scooby-Doo ending that insults the viewer ever further.

 

DARWAZA

(1978)

Overall: MEH

 

After a six year break, the Ramsay brothers Tulsi and Shyam return to the horror genre which they would continue to indulge in throughout the following decade with Darwaza, a typically boisterous, overlong, unintentionally silly, and occasionally striking foray into their own particular Bollywood take on the genre.  If one wants to guarantee alcohol poisoning, a drinking game can be made every time that the camera rapidly zooms in on a character's face while a loud trumpet noise blares on the soundtrack, something that serves the startling purpose of a jump scare yet is done in such comical abundance as to become disorienting.  There is a hefty cast in place, all over-acting to the gills and flying into bouts of crying mania or ragefull and demanding outbursts, all of this along with the busy editing contributing to the over-the-top tone.  The location shooting does not allow for the European or Westernized style gothic scenery, but the Ramsay's make it a point to drench every horror set piece in fog, blaring the scary music, casting shadows on the nondescript walls, and even venturing into an earthy and candlelit dungeon to discover the identity of the film's towering, char-faced, werewolf-like monster.  Angry villagers, curses, cars breaking down, forbidden mansions, dark family secrets, revenge, unnecessary musical numbers; it is all here for better or worse.

 

AUR KAUN?

(1979)

Overall: MEH

 

Tulsi and Shyam Ramsay closed out the 1970s with another wacky horror film, Aur Kaun?, (Who Else?), having the usual combination of bombastic and slapdash elements.  Jet-powered fog, rapid-fire camera zooms, blaring soundtrack cues, characters flying into melodramatic rages, and even a finale where everyone slides through the mud while battling each other, it is a ridiculous watch if one is to merely point out the most outlandish aspects.  At over two-hours as was the norm, it is bogged-down by random song and dance numbers, (which was also the norm), and is more problematic due to a razor-thin story that is stretched to a breaking point with redundant dialog and bare bones production values.  The Ramsay's still crank it up to eleven when going for genre freakiness, but these moments are fewer and more far between than in their previous two horror works.  It is mostly yelling, crying, more yelling, and aggressive comic relief as Padmini Kapila's teacher spirit kind-of-not-really haunts Sachin Pilgaonkar, only for us to find out that someone who we thought was dead never was.  The movie comes to life when it kicks into aggressive gear and has its own semblance of logic for those who can simply ride the wave, but the downtime in between such moments proves detrimental to the whole.