BANDH DARWAZA
Though made in 1990, Bandh Darwaza feels very much like the Ramsays' more frequent early '80s outings and would play well with the likes of Fright Night (itself also remade into a Bollywood film). The ridiculous production design and fiesty performances make it great fun to watch, and the Ramsays wisely throw in some action footage every time the plot threatens to lag. The obligatory songs are extremely brief and delivered in an offhand fashion by India's standards, leaving plenty of room for monster mayhem -- particularly Agarwai's knockout, truly monstrous lead performance, complete with fiery eyes and gnashing teeth. From the
One of the Ramsays' most financially successful films was the earlier Purana Mandir, again featuring Agarwai as a vicious monster-- in this case, Saamri, a baby-eating, tourist-slashing fiend who gets rounded up and beheading by angry villagers. Two centuries later, the youngest male descendant (Bahl) of the beheaders has a sexy young girlfiend (Gupta) and a nasty curse hanging over his head; namely, all the women in his family turn into demons after giving birth. With his head and body soon reattached, Saamri is back in business terrorizing the countryside, with the naive young couple fighting for their lives to undo the sins of their fathers.
Evaluating the condition of these films on DVD is
As usual the Mondo Macabro extras offer a solid primer on the country and context for the films, beginning with a nifty featurette, "Freddie, Jason and... Sammri: The Ramsays and the Birth of Bollywood Horror," which covers the Ramsays' pre-'90s horror career (mostly focusing on Purana Mandir). The Mondo Macabro episode on "South Asian Horror" broadens the territory a bit with a half-hour overview of unique Eastern terror from India, Pakistan and surrounding countries, with loads of poster art, stills and clips whetting your appetite for Bollywood Horror, Volume 2. Additional text extras ("About Bollywood Horror" and "Ramsay Family Values") provide additional details beyond the featurettes, written in MM's usual insightful style. Finally, you get an updated version of that delicious MM promo reel. Very highly recommended all around, and a refreshing demonstration that Bollywood horror goes far, far beyond the musical lite-slashers from the past few years.
Color, 1990, 147mi. / Directed by Shyam & Tulsi Ramsay / Starring Anirudh Agarwal, Vijayendra Ghatge, Hashmat Khan, Majeet Kullar
PURANA MANDIR
Color, 1984, 146m. / Directed by Shyam & Tulsi Ramsay / Starring Ajay Agarwai, Mohnish Bahl, Arti Gupta, Puneet Issar / Mondo Macabro
Though the Bollywood industry has only recently embraced outright horror films in the
past few years with song-and-dance screamers riffing on the likes of I Know What You Did Last Summer, the country's horror heritage secretly stretches back several decades, largely thanks to the efforts of two men: Shyam and Tulsi Ramsay. Packing their movies with wild monsters, screaming damsels, gothic castles, hefty doses of gore, and colorful lighting, they stunned Indian audiences with such films as Hotel and these two wild outings, presented to American audiences for the first time. Cult film fans have been salivating for Ramsay releases on DVD since reading about them in Pete Tombs' indispensable Mondo Macabro book, and this double-dose should make a welcome appetizer for Western viewers.
The more famous of the two, Bandh Darwaza ("Closed Door") is a colorful, deliberately kitschy, violent vampire saga, with bloodsucker Neola entering an unholy pact with an expecting mother who promises her newborn if it's a female. Not surprisingly, mom has second thoughts and sends her husband to dispatch her partner in evil; however, faster than you can say Dracula, Prince of Darkness, the vampire is resurrected eighteen years later to continue his quest for the promised maiden. Not surprisingly, she isn't too thrilled with the prospect of becoming a bride of the undead, and her suitors and friends are packing up their gear for some rough-and-tumble monster hunting.
profuse fog machines to the bat-themed decor and even some not-too-subtle musical lifts from American horror films, this is about as close to pure drive-in Indian cinema as you can get.
A bit more in line with the usual Bollywood formula, Purana Mandir spends more time on character development and romantic subplots than the average Ramsay fare but still delivers where it counts, particularly in the rousing final third when Saamri really cuts loose on the enitre cast. Once again the Western influence is evident from the '80s horror-style soundtrack to the heavy doses of neon-colored stage blood, and the colorless lead characters don't have a chance compared to the flamboyant villain.
a bit tricky, as anyone familiar with most Indian DVDs is well aware that (a) most films aren't well preserved if they even manage to survive at all, and (b) most transfers of anything older then five years or so tends to be plagued by rampant compression artifacts and inconsistent black levels. Bandh Darwaza looks surprisingly nice overall -- not spectacular by the usual DVD standards, but the colors and sharpness are impressive enough. Purana Mandir is taken from the best surviving video master, which still looks rather soft and dated -- but it's nice we have it all. Both come with optional English subtitles, and the full frame compositions appear to be accurate.
