Boo
Introduction
It is still a Tuesday and last night was an epic finale of the highest proportion when Chennai Super Kings beat the defending champions Gujarat Titans in a nail biting encounter. And such has been the season for CSK and that one man behind the show MS Dhoni who has been lapped up and cheered right throughout the country. Our little rockstar Ravindra Jadeja did pay a perfect tribute to him by scoring 10 runs of the final 2 balls in what was a heist of a run chase! Ahhh, fairy tale endings are quite a thing aren’t they?
One of the interesting aspects of the IPL final was that it continuee for over 3 nights. While the show on Sunday was stalled due to the torrential rains, the Rain Gods almost played spoilsport yet again yesterday before the match resumed, and eventually ending by 3 AM in the morning. As a result, I had just enough time to quickly watch one film and be ready in time for a review today. And I had to settle for the Telugu film Boo which is streaming on Jio Cinema despite me not quite interested in it, primarily because it was barely 90 minutes long and would get over in a jiffy.
Now, no one from the starcast did promote the film which had a direct digital release on the OTT platform, and that is almost like a giveaway on what the film has to offer. Jio Cinema needs to be careful as to not over sell their platform and in the process become a dumping ground for content(like MX Player). Any which way, now that I have finished watching Boo, here are my two cents on the same.
Story & Screenplay
Boo follows the story of four friends who gather for a Halloween party until strange occurences start to take place through the night. The story has an interesting premise and is in the mould of horror films like Darna Mana Hai and Darna Zaroori Hai. So the theme is multiple horror tales wrapped inside a single story. But the screenplay of barely 90 minutes is so patchy and so poor that I barely was invested at any given point of time.
The drama opens on a ridiculously bad note with all the friends assembling in a house at night. The issue is not with the setting but the creative decision to fill the drama with stereotypes and unnecessary comedy. So the healthy girl(for the lack of a better word, not fat shaming) is the one who is after food and is meant to be funny through her antics. The rest of the two girls are just ‘there’ while the fourth girl is said to be the showrunner. Why? Because she is the prettiest of the lot, silly! When this is the level of writing, how do you expect the viewers to take the drama seriously. But Farhad, this is a horror film right? We can talk about that, instead? Perhaps it is promising? The answer is NO in capital letters!
Each of the individual tales are just so sketchy and half-hearted that you barely feel anything for the characters. The proceedings are unintentionally funny. Now picture this – a girl enters a house only to find out that she should have hiccups. Because if she does, she is doomed. How ridiculous can you get with the writing? Not a single frame that is scary or even remotely builds itself up with the right kind of atmospherics. It is as bad as bad can be, perhaps a notch worse than that. As a reviewer, I was almost like give me something to write on but the moments just did not arrive.
The individual stories are far too random in the drama, so much so that you stop caring about them. There was a line in the film which said that those who would read the book(the source of the stories told throughout the film) then they would die. Yes, with boredom, I could not agree more! The final act did comprise of one of the most ridiculous acts ever, randomly linking every story with a character before reversing the twist and later again throwing in the ‘Uno Reverse’ card. There was no logic provided on why things are the way they are even in terms of a few characters. This, while I had to switch to 2X mode to get done with the film and instead get some sleep. The screenplay is a disaster of the highest order.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are cringe worthy and make for zero inpact. One of the key ingredients for a horror film is a resounding soundtrack. But this was perhaps the most generic BGMs that I have been privy to in a very long time! The cinematography and editing do not exude any confidence at all. Director AL Vijay does a horrible job here. There is neither an effort of world building nor a taste for building up the tension. The proceedings are incredibly bad and the director needs to take part of the blame for the same.
Performances
The performances comprise of a stellar cast but apart from Rakul Preet Singh(relatively so), none of the actors leave a mark. And it had a lot to do with how their characters were written. Nivetha Pethuraj is a talented actor but she fails to leave a mark. Megha Akash, Manjima Mohan, Aayira and Vidyullekha Raman are caricatures in the film. Vishwak Sen has very little to do. This was a collective mess in the acting department too.
Conclusion
Boo is a brilliant masterclass on how NOT to make a Horror Film. Period. Available on Jio Cinema.