Horror Films in Bollywood by Riddhima Sen

Horror films in Bollywood generally focus on Jumpstart in order to create an eerie ambience. Be it the haunting background music, or the dilapidated mansion where the characters go, the amount of fear is already initiated. Horror, however, is not just limited to particular genre. There is psychological horror. In addition to this, there is analog Horror. Social Horror is the most intriguing. Social horror gets manifested through the antagonists and negative characters in the film.

In Anvita Dutt’s directorial ‘Bulbbul’, the witch is not the real horror element. The social hierarchy imposed upon the protagonist and her getting assaulted and her evolution become the main plot twist of the film. The horror is felt through characters like Indraneel and Mahendra. There is Satya who is a typical male side character – treats the woman nice until she behaves according to his whims and fancies. When she takes her own decisions, he decides to moral police her by judging her character. Are women just objects to be controlled, who knows?

Horror through women’s eyes is often scary, more scary than the red lipstick monster in the latest Insidious instalment. The real scenarios that women go through on a daily basis as depicted in ‘Khauf’ makes it more believable. The horror becomes something all women can relate with. The scenes in the bus, the scenes in the hostel – all feel way too real.

Woman as antagonists in films is explored rarely in Bollywood. And rightfully so, horror is the fear of the unknown. But can it not transgress the boundaries of the unknown to bleed into the known sometimes? Ghosts are created by the filmmakers, however social evils are absolutely real in nature. They can be noticed anywhere, and scare us enough too. Who decides that scary can only be ‘imaginative’ in nature? Reality lends elements to imagination, does it not after all?