Netflix’s latest anthology Ghost Stories has 4 different horror stories directed by Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar each. All four directed Lust Stories for Netflix earlier and now they are back to scare the hell out of you.
Zoya Akhtar’s segment starring Janhvi Kapoor, Surekha Sikri & Vijay Varma is a story about an old lady on her death bed and a nurse who has been appointed to take her care. As the nurse reaches her house she starts having some supernatural experiences.
Anurag Kashyap’s segment comes in a psychological horror zone. It’s about a woman who is going through the trauma of her miscarriage and is a second time pregnant. How her nephew’s overtly affection and her own negative thoughts manifest into some really creepy happenings makes the basic plot.
Dibakar Banerjee’s segment talks about how the discrimination between powerful and underprivileged people can take a nightmarish turn.
Karan Johar tells the story of a girl named Ira. She gets married to a boy who along with his family is connected with “granny” even after her death. What happens when Ira takes charge of investigating the reality and challenges granny to show up?
The two and half hour approx film works in half and disappoints equally. Zoya Akhtar’s story is more about cinematic art and technicalities. You’ll love the way her camera moves from one place to another, you’ll like the performances but everything doesn’t add up to hook you because the story doesn’t offer anything new and on top of that the screenplay is as weak as it gets. There’s absolutely nothing and it won’t be wrong to call the story even meaningless. It seems like a last-minute assignment submission to Netflix by Zoya.
Anurag Kashyap tries to create a creepy and eerie environment that he successfully creates to some extent. However, the very niche treatment leaves the audience more baffled and less entertained.
It’s the right time when Kashyap should understand that stories are meant to engage a large section of the audience, not a tiny set of people who satisfy themselves with your brilliant technical skills as a director.
Dibakar Banerjee saves the sinking ship of Ghost Stories single-handedly. His segment is not just engaging but extremely disturbing. As a regular Netflix audience, I must say his segment creeped the hell out of me. Dibakar creates an environment that is eerie, painful, emotionally disturbing, spine chilling and shiver-inducing. Never before I felt as scared as I felt while watching this one. The detail with which he has shown the events will haunt you for a long time.
I didn’t expect much from Karan Johar but honestly, he didn’t disappoint. He doesn’t tell a great horror story but the man deserves accolades for making a good debut. His story is actually spooky if not a hardcore scary one.
Janhvi Kapoor comes out of her comfort zone and impresses with her act. Surekha Sikri is a brilliant actor and she outshines even though she plays a restricted role. Sobhita Dhulipala gives another stunning performance after Made In Heaven. She doesn’t have many dialogues but still keeps you hooked. Sukant Goel & child artist Aditya Shetty add value to Dibakar Banerjee’s extremely engaging story. Both of them give a mindblowing performance and make their characters believable. Avinash Tiwary & Mrunal Thakur are so amazing. We’ve witnessed the excellent acting chops of Avinash in Laila Majnu and even though he doesn’t play an as challenging character like that, he creates a very good impression here as well. Mrunal Thakur is excellent too.