Director: Tinu Suresh Desai
Cast: Sharman Joshi, Meera Chopra, Vishal Karwal
Touting to be a horror film, ‘1920 London’ featuring Sharman Joshi, Meera Chopra and Vishal Karwal in pivotal roles is anything but horror. Tad bit gripping; it even arouses your interest at certain points but definitely does not serve even the basics of being tagged as a horror film.
The film opens with a beautiful train scene set in Sikar, Rajasthan which is the hometown of Shivangi (Meera Chopra) and then further explores the locales of London where she is living a happily-married life with husband Kunwar Veer Singh (Vishal Karwal). Both of them being Indian Royals receive a ‘royal’ locket as a present and as a token of respect from their hometown which sets the story going but soon weird things start happening to Veer and his condition goes out of hand. Shivangi fears its black magic and rushes to Rajasthan where after a whole lot of unbelievable ‘tantric’ ceremonies she realises that the only person who can save her husband is shepherd-turned-exorcist Jai Singh Gujjar (Sharman Joshi) who happens to be her old love-interest. (Insert a sarcastic wohoo!)
All this is ‘1920-ish’ for which everything is following a make-believe pattern; from the set up of house interiors to hospital decors to vintage cars to Meera’s costumes, hairstyles and everything. Not just the external factors but even the intrinsic acting abilities are exploring the arena of smiling, eyes-talking and walking around hand in hand in the beginning. Another intriguing aspect is that while the title speaks of London, the film is mostly clichéd desi-version of horror stories.
Meera is more like damsel in distress; who’s either seen blushing in love or playing the sympathy card in pain. While she does resemble Priyanka Chopra a lot, her acting is a little too away from her cousin’s potential so comparisons can’t (shouldn’t) really be drawn. To her credit, not for once, does she overdo her part. Sharman is a brilliant actor but even that doesn’t save this chuckle-inducing horror flick. Moreover, he can easily be called a misfit here. There are scenes where it looks as if he’s trying to hard to fit in but to our disappointment, he isn’t even close to what he has offered previously. For instance, there’s a scene, just after his introduction, where Sharman is chasing a witch and you just can’t help but begin thinking how forced a scene can be and even thoughts of it will evoke chuckles! Where is the Sharman we’re waiting for? Vishal Karwal’s dimples might fetch your attention in the beginning and in the end as those are the only two phases where he is seen in action!
The plot is pretty much predictable but still doesn’t fail to grip you. Twists are timely planned and executed in a bearable manner until you realise it’s supposed to be a horror! The basic idea lies with the overlapping of horror and ‘tantric-sorts’ ideologies in Bollywood. Black magic, achhi atma-buri atma, lemon with red chillies, a couple of namahs, rivers, babas and everything clichéd have been put in action here. It’s more like light, camera, clichés!
Being the third film in the ‘1920’ series, after ‘1920’ and ‘1920: The Evil Returns’, there isn’t anything wow or anything that can be boasted about. To the film’s credit, music will help you endure the story line that starts feeling like a sleeping pill towards the end.
Don’t even bat an eyelid before skipping ‘1920: London’. It’s that easy to miss!
Rating: 1.5/5
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