New Delhi: Gaslight ticks all the requirements for a thriller: eerie settings, creepy paintings, an ancient and rustic haveli, a dark screen tone, an alleged murder, and so on.
Although we’re debating whether the film’s title, Gaslight, adequately describes the plot, here’s some context. Sara Ali Khan (Meesha) is a wheelchair-bound young woman who comes back to her family’s royal palace 15 years after getting a letter from her father, Raja Ratan Singh Gaikwad. She returns, meanwhile, to be welcomed by her suspected stepmother Rukmini (played by Chitrangda Singh), just to discover that he is abroad on business. Is he, even so?
The property is still run by Kapil (Vikrant Massey), who is ‘kareeb hokey bhi neeji zindagi se koso durr’ from his boss, Raja Saheb. And this is where your suspicions begin to build. In a mystery, a too-good-to-be-true character raises suspicion, and you privately hope that the writers do an excellent job by not plotting the obvious. Spoiler alert: this is one of the few instances of displeasure in the film that we’d like to label as a “loophole.”
The pace and horror movie vibes that Gaslight attempts to create at the start will remind you of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in a modern setting. We often rationalize a paraplegic woman exploring a creepy-looking strange palace while it’s all dark and rainy outside by saying, ‘sirf filmon mein hota hain’.
Sara Ali Khan worked on her accent and acting when it came to inhabiting the personas. Despite the fact that she has a long way to go, her expressions and language delivery did not appear forced, unlike in her previous flicks. Chitrangada Singh is just getting better with age, and there could not have been a greater Rukmini than her. She effectively conveyed all of the character’s suspicions until; chalo choro!
Vikrant Massey is a well-known performer who has risen to prominence through his talent and hard work. Through his film, he once again demonstrated his mettle. But he isn’t the only character with layers, his transformation is so seamless that you’ll scarcely notice, even expecting it from the start.
Pavan Kirpalani is well known for his mastery of the psycho-thriller genre. Gaslight may not be considered one of his better works, but we have to give him credit for attempting to pull off such a tough genre as this one.
