Directed by Tulsi & Shyam Ramsay
Review by David Carter


Released by Mondo Macabro
Running Time: 145 minutes each
Rating: Not Rated
Color format: Color
Audio/Subtitles: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Hindi/English Subtitles
Region Code: 1, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Academy Ratio
16:9 Enhanced: No
Special Features: Cast, crew, and production information
Trailer Online: Yes

Short Version: Another double-shot of Indian horror from Mondo Macabro

While every country’s horror cinema has its share of important names, only India can claim that a single family has dominated their horror output. The Ramsay brothers are the kings of Indian horror, having made the genre commercially successful and more artistically reputable over the past three decades. It is for that reason that any discussion of Indian horror usually begins and ends with the five Ramsay brothers. Mondo Macabro chief Pete Tombs certainly knows this, dedicating the line’s BOLLYWOOD HORROR COLLECTION to their films as well as a chapter of the book from which the label gets its name. Two of their more controversial films have found their way onto VOLUME 2 of the collection.

VEERANA: VENGEANCE OF THE VAMPIRE begins with an introduction of the villains; an unusual choice for a horror film. Nakita is a powerful witch who seduces men with her stunning beauty before draining them of blood. The warlock Baba assists her and together they serve the evil deity Mahakal from their underground lair. The villagers bring the body of one of Nakita’s victims to the house of the wealthy Thakur. After seeing the villagers’ fear, Thakur’s brother Sameer travels to Nakita’s lair, capturing her and bringing her to the town square for justice. Baba swears revenge on Thakur’s family for killing Nakita. He puts his evil plan in action by transferring Nakita’s soul to Thakur’s daughter Jasmin’s body, kidnapping Sameer, and disguising himself to gain entry into Thakur’s home. No one suspects Jasmin contains an evil spirit but after a few strange incidents Thakur sends Sameer’s daughter Sahila to live with distant relatives.

Baba’s plan involves waiting until Jasmin is older, so wait he does. After graduating, Sahila and new boyfriend Hemant come for a visit and find Jasmin is now a beautiful but strange young woman. Her continual odd behavior causes Thakur to summon a doctor to monitor her, yet no one believes him when he concludes that she is a witch. Local villagers begin disappearing as before and all signs point to Jasmin. Hemant is captured but manages to rescue Sameer from Baba’s henchmen. The happy reunion is short-lived, however, because Sameer informs the family that Nakita will be reborn in Jasmin if they don’t stop Mahakal’s followers.

VEERANA is an interesting film that mixes European vampire lore with traditional Indian folk tales. A pre-title warning of the film’s faithfulness to these tales likely did not prepare audiences well enough for the sexy terrors that followed. Much like the sexy vampiresses coming out of Europe at the time, Nakita/Jasmin is a femme fatale to be reckoned with; the epitome of sex and violence rolled into one. Both actresses have suggestive bath scenes that reportedly gave Indian censors cause to delay the film’s release. Visually, the film owes a debt to the works of Mario Bava – particularly his film KILL, BABY… KILL. VEERANA is filled with vibrant colors and ornate set pieces – most notably a massive golden statue of Mahakal – that are on par with those in Bava’s film. Furthering the similarities between the Bava’s films and VEERANA is lead actress Jasmin. She bears a striking resemblance to a Bollywood Barbara Steele with her hauntingly large eyes and a beauty that is at once innocent and menacing.

PURANI HAVELI – MANSION OF EVIL is VEERANA’s follow-up both on the DVD set and in the Ramsay’s body of work. Again, we start off with an interesting opening. This time it’s one that is pretty traditional for Western horror films but very out of place in Indian cinema – a tour of Christian iconography. We first see a couple stop at an abandoned mansion in the middle of the night only to be murdered by a giant hairy beast-man. The film then shifts focus to the city, where Kumar and Seema are purchasing the same mansion with the inheritance money of their niece, Anita. The pair is trying to scam her out of her fortune with the purchase and plan to further drain her funds by having her marry Vikram, Seema’s thuggish brother. Anita loves photographer Sunil, however, and stands by his side until Vikram makes it clear that he’s willing to kill anyone in his way.

To escape from the tension, Anita and her friends travel to the mansion for a holiday. Things immediately take a turn for the worst, however, when tempers flare between Vikram and Sunil. At the same time, the house begins killing off the unwanted guests in a gory fashion. The increasing body count doesn’t stop Seema and Vikram’s scheming and they attack Sunil in the mansion’s dungeon. Their evil plan has the unexpected consequence of freeing the hairy monster from his prison and soon the lives of all of the guests are in danger.

PURANI HAVELI sticks with its Christian mythos throughout for a terrifying story of a possessed mansion and the birth of Satan’s child. The film is more in the vein of American horror than VEERANA’s European stylings. PURANI HAVELI delivers more traditional “shock” scares but doesn’t manage to create or maintain the same level of atmosphere as VEERANA. The man-monster is truly horrific and an excellent example of a well-realized traditional effects job. Keep in mind that American horror cinema was beginning its reliance on computer trickery at this point, so PURANI HAVELI’s old school scares are even more impressive. The film’s ending is extremely well executed and could hold its own against any of its horror contemporaries from other nations. The ending chase sequence is evocative of the climaxes seen in the slasher genre and PURANI HAVELI admirably sustains a high-level of tension for almost twenty minutes.

Newcomers to Bollywood cinema should be aware of a couple things before viewing. First and foremost, each of these films is over two hours. For the sake of comparison, they are just seven minutes shorter than THE DARK KNIGHT. Long for any movie, over two hours is an eternity for a horror film and thus these films are paced in a vastly different way than you’d expect if you’re coming from a background of Western or even East Asian horror. Secondly, as with any Bollywood film, there are song and dance numbers and comic subplots. This is especially true for PURANI HAVELI, where over half of the film is dedicated to romance and comedy. Personally, I found these elements to be well done in each film and felt that they enhanced, rather than diminished, the overall work. Neither of these things is mentioned to dissuade you from seeing either film but instead just to ensure that you know what you’re in for prior to watching.

Mondo Macabro’s two-disc set of VEERANA and PURANI HAVELI is excellent and contains an outstanding print of each film. The vibrancy of the colors in VEERANA blew me away; I’d compare the films to THE MARIO BAVA COLLECTION from Anchor Bay in terms of the quality of the restoration. Adventurous cinephiles will be drawn to these films for their rarity and the novelty value of horror films with dance numbers. For whatever reason you choose to see them, they are extremely effective horror films by anyone’s standards and a necessity for any fan of international horror.