'404' breaks clichés of horror genre, a must watch!
In one word, stunning! That's the impact of Prawaal Raman's supernatural thriller. No creaking doors, no Dolby-driven demoniacal sound effects, no half-naked girls running around with banshee shrieks and provocative protests, none of the trappings of the horror genre. And yet "404" is one of the most terrifying movie experiences in recent times.
Leaving behind the gross audio and visual excesses of the horror genre, "404" creates a universe of subdued and muted terror within the normal milieu.
The music never rises to a crescendo even as the narrative peaks to an all-time high of smothered terror. "404" is the most natural supernatural thriller you are likely to see in Hindi. The excesses of the genre are quietly set aside for a tone of narration that constantly favours understatement.
Raman is not new to the supernatural-horror genre. In "Darna Mana Hai" and its sequel "Darna Zaroori Hai", he never got it so right. In "404", he goes for the jugular and clamps a terror-band around your throat with the fear of the unknown stalking the mind rather than the film's physical landscape.
Raman is not new to the supernatural-horror genre. In "Darna Mana Hai" and its sequel "Darna Zaroori Hai", he never got it so right. In "404", he goes for the jugular and clamps a terror-band around your throat with the fear of the unknown stalking the mind rather than the film's physical landscape.
It isn't easy to create a sense of foreboding from within the intangible places in the characters' mind and heart. From the first frame when the film opens at a medical college in a quaint hill station - ah terror in tranquility, that's one cliché from the horror genre you don't mind - the narrative, generates a feeling of darkness and danger lurking in the imposing corridors. And yet the film is never gloomy or dull in mood or visuals. Maybe it's the luscious art work.
More likely, it is just intelligent writing rather than cheap and gimmicky horror tactics that are usually applied to the genre.
The smartly-written screenplay about a doughty medical student who befriends the boy who killed himself in the same room has echoic shades of Kiran Rao's "Dhobi Ghat", which had the painter Aamir Khan moving into the house of a woman who commits suicide. "Dhobi Ghat" romanticized the link between the present and past.
More likely, it is just intelligent writing rather than cheap and gimmicky horror tactics that are usually applied to the genre.
The smartly-written screenplay about a doughty medical student who befriends the boy who killed himself in the same room has echoic shades of Kiran Rao's "Dhobi Ghat", which had the painter Aamir Khan moving into the house of a woman who commits suicide. "Dhobi Ghat" romanticized the link between the present and past.
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