Sacred Evil
Cast: Sarika, Lynsey Pow and Frédéric Andrau
Directors: Abhigyan Jha and Abhiyan Rajhans
The film that opened at the box office this week is Sacred Evil, a psychological thriller based on a real-life story. Now, a forty-something nun in a Kolkata convent is being haunted by a spirit, and to heal this nun, the Mother Superior calls upon a wiccan, a witch Ipshita, played by Sarika.
Working closely with the nun to figure out what it is that's bothering her, Ipshita finds out that the nun is overcome with feelings of guilt related to a young Anglo-Indian girl who herself has been plagued with complicated issues related to her mother.
In the end, Ipshita discovers that the nun's life is intrinsically linked with that girl's, and Ipshita's forced to confront the question that throws itself up -- can the sacred within us ever be as strong as the evil. And hence the film's title.
I think it's fabulous that we're making all these experimental movies about all these unconventional themes, but truth is, we're not telling edgy stories. I mean the problem with Sacred Evil is that it's neither intelligent nor entertaining. In fact it's so contrived and so boring, it just puts you to sleep ten minutes into the film.
Now, I like the fact that we're making so many English movies in India, but I have a problem with the way our actors speak English. The idea is to speak it the way we speak on the street, but just look at Sarika and the other actors in this film.
They come off looking like they're participating in an elocution competition, where's the Indian accent, where's the slang? I mean, who told them they had to sound like they're in a Bernard Shaw production?
Now apparently, the character of the witch that Sarika plays in Sacred Evil is based on a woman Ipshita Roy Chekrevarti who has herself collaborated on the script. I have to say, the lady doesn't inspire a film -- not from what I've seen in Sacred Evil.
She hasn't done anything that deserves to be immortalised on celluloid. And the film is hideously boring, it truly is. The foreign actors are so lifeless, so dull, I won't be surprised they're tourists who were picked up from Cafe Mondegar on Colaba Causeway.
And the icing on the cake is the discovery that it took two people to direct this picture... As far as I'm concerned, watching this film is as insufferable as being possessed by spirits. And if I meet with some mysterious accident or a tree falls on me after this review, you know exactly who's been poking pins in my voodoo doll.
Rating: 0 / 5 (Such Trash!)
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