Fright Nights:
When it comes to horror shows on Indian OTT platforms, restraint is not a word that would normally apply, but Adhura (on Amazon Prime) written and directed by Ananya Banerjee and Gauravv K. Chawla manages to keep the schlock scares under control for most of the seven episodes.
The plot recycles the I Know What You Did Last Summer formula, but foggy hill stations, Gothic school buildings, old boy reunions and murder makes a watchable cocktail blend. Nilgiri Valley, an elite boys’ boarding school in Ooty is the setting for all the drama. The timeline moves from 2007 to the present, when that batch from the past is congregating for a 15 year reunion.
Adhiraj (Ishwak Singh), an anxiety-prone professor, is travelling from the US, hoping to mend fences with his old friend Ninad (Poojan Chhabra). His former sweetheart, Malvika (Zoa Morani) is now married to Dev (Rijul Ray), former classmate and arrogant son of the school trustee. A few others from the batch of 2007, that includes a TV star, Suyash (Sahil Salathia) land to catch up and party.
The secret the school’s tall turrets, high-ceilinged halls and swanky guest rooms are hiding, is bullying. Fifteen years ago, Ninad suffered brutal hazing, and in the present, saucer-eyed kid, Vedant (Shrenik Arora) is being tormented by a gang of mean boys. The school’s kindly counselor, Supriya (Rasika Dugal), goes beyond the call of duty to help Vedant, due to a tragedy in her own past.
When the two eras collide, there are, at first, a few strange incidents—like a bunch of puppies found dead—then bodies start dropping. Adhiraj starts looking for Ninad, who went missing on the last day at school, when Malvika broke up with him and he packed off to America. There seems to be a paranormal element at play, Adhiraj looks gobsmacked all the time, and Supriya patiently gives logical explanations for the bizarre goings on, but even she finds herself in over her head, when Vedant pops out his green-marble eyes and smirks at every new incident. The cop sent over from Delhi (Rahul Dev) is flummoxed by all that he witnesses.
What happens is not in the least surprising, if the viewer has had campus horror flicks on their previous watchlists, but the goings-in are interesting mainly because the way the back-and-forth is layered and secrets gradually uncovered, shot with slow pans (Srijan Chaurasia), accompanied by effective atmospheric (John Stewart Eduri). There are plenty of the usual horror tricks, creaking hinges, sudden fires, footsteps of invisible people, heavy objects falling, spirit possession antics and the like, but Banerjee and Chawla avoid lurid gimmicks and keep the gore mostly low key till the last two episodes. Then all stops are pulled out. And there is a Season 2 built in, even if it means the running time knocks over the attention span. Brevity is the soul not just of wit but horror too– those boos only go so far.
There is not much for actors to do within the limited scope of the genre, still, Rasika Dugal, Ishwak Singh and the teens playing the younger versions of the reunion-attending grown-ups take their work seriously, but it’s the cute and talented Shrenik Arora who steals the show.
(This piece first appeared in scroll.in)
