Five reasons why Birsa Dasgupta’s ‘Shob Bhooturey’ is a must watch this Halloween

The perfect Halloween horror movie requires the ideal tone to match all that Halloween mix of thrills and chills. It can’t be too much dour or outright horrifying, and it also fits the bill if you can watch it in a group. If you’re searching for something different to binge on and which can capture that singular Halloween spirit, we would recommend you Birsa Dasgupta’s 2017 hit ‘Shob Bhooturey’. Here’s a low down on five striking reasons to watch the horror flick.

Abir Chatterjee despite underplaying his character, once again showed how he can make his presence felt without even shouting for attention. Sohini Sarkar’s dialogue throw and appearance creates a mysterious uncanny atmosphere. However, It’s never been explained why her character is behaving and speaking in a strange way. Her straight-faced unblinking stares and unruly locks give us the ultimate creeps. Supriyo Dutta tries his best as the magazine editor but his failed attempt to do comedy can be overlooked as his character adds some light moments.

Little Ida Dasgupta, incidentally director Birsa dasgupta’s daughter, makes a superb debut at a small age. It’s no surprise that she has acting in her genes as she is also the daughter of actress Bidipta Chakraborty, the director’s wife. You won’t see her throwing dialogues but her big expressive eyes are effective enough to send chills down your spine. One can witness a glimpse of her mother Bidipta Chakraborty in her acting and expressions. Even the first look of the film featuring the mysterious eyes of little Ida, long before its release, generated a lot of curiosity.

Despite few short comings in the script, you should watch this film because of the great presentation. A ghost story often turns out to be more appealing depending on how the director narrates it more than the content. Birsa Dasgupta and his band of brother, especially the technical team deserves full marks for presenting the story with a perfect atmosphere which covers the few loop holes of the story brilliantly. A round of applause for Gairik Sarkar’s cinematography! It’s the best thing about ‘Shob Bhooturey’. He creates the ghostly ambience with his camera like a magician. The two major aspects are background score and sound design which plays a big part in creating scary situations and in this horror flick both the departments have excelled in their roles. Also the two music tracks in the opening and end credit composed by Shubho Pramanik are perfect example of a haunting melody.

Birsa Dasgupta’s film is not a remake of any horror flick or an adaptation of any popular ghost story; the story original and fresh. The best part of the story is - it has been narrated in a quite simply way making it more appealing to all age groups, particularly kids. The screenplay by Kallol Lahiri doesn’t depend on too many superimposed visual effects to scare the hell out of you. Instead, it concentrates on developing scary situations with terrific background score. Plus, unlike typical horror movies it won’t show the scariest moments in dream sequences which often reduce the impact of a scene when you get to realize it’s just a dream sequence. There is only one such dream scene which anyone can easily accept. Also, the plot doesn’t want to only scare the audience, rather it tells an emotional story as well involving some innocent school kids and it will touch your heart for sure.

The story revolves around a haunted village school which will be shut down following some paranormal activities inside the school campus. To save the school, the Head master reaches out to a team of paranormal investigators who write their thrilling encounters in a magazine ‘Shob Bhooturey’. However, the current owner of the magazine Aniket (Abir Chatterjee) doesn’t believe in supernatural forces and decides to close the magazine. His late father was a paranormal investigator who visited so many haunted places but it doesn’t attract Aniket. Despite all these, he agrees to investigate the paranormal activities in the village school just to stop the school from being shut down. The editor of the magazine (Supriyo Dutta) and a mysterious girl Nandini (Sohini Sarkar) who claims to have the power to contact the ghosts accompany her. Will they be able to solve the mystery? That’s what forms the rest of the film.