Happy Friday the 13th!  I was just reminded of Indian horror movies by moviemavengal’s post on Pizza.  I haven’t seen Pizza (too scary!), but I did catch the trailer on one of my Tamil DVDs, and it was so striking that as soon as I saw the title on moviemavengal’s post, I instantly remembered it.

The only horror movie I have seen is The Innocents.  Which is terrifying, but more on the psychological level, then the mass murderer killing innocent teenagers kind of thing.

I have seen 2 Indian “horror” movies, but they weren’t scary AT ALL.  Although I know India does have a history of horror films, I think they haven’t been really well-made and actually scary until recently, post Ram Gopal Verma’s Bhoot.

I am anti this trend!  Partly because I just don’t like horror movies and have no interest in people making more of them.  But mostly because the watered down not-scary version of horror movies for some reason tend to have super fun soundtracks.  Maybe because they are about teenagers?

One of my all time favorite guilty pleasure movies is Taarzan: The Wonder Car.  Which is partly inspired by Herbie: The Love Bug.  But also by Christine, the classic 70s horror movie about a murderous car.

It’s sort of amazing that these two very different sensibilities are able to come together!  On the one hand, Ajay Devgn, reborn as a car, is traveling the night alone, confronting and killing his murderers.  On the other hand, Ajay’s son Vatsal Sheth, is having campus hijinks and falling in love with Ayesha Thakia with the support of his car/father/wingman.

But more importantly, awesome songs!  So light and silly and happy, in the middle of this crazed revenge saga!

(Thank goodness they are making out inside of his car/father, so his car/father can watch the road and keep them out of trouble!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKW4N7tzZxM

(Look at them having fun in a club!  While his Father/car goes on a killing spree!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A7vDh2tGQQ

(The perfect daughter-in-law!  Willing to suit up and help you rebuild yourself, when the car your ghost-spirit is inhabiting gets a little beat up)

(My favorite song!  And the only thing supernatural about this part of the film is how one sip of alcohol makes him into an expert dancer)

And then there is the other teenage horror movie, Sssssshhhh, which I have never actually watched straight through (because it is terrible), but I loooooooooove all the songs!  Like, the soundtrack is one of my “most played” on my ipod.

(Look how cute Kajol’s little sister was, back in the day!  And Dino Morea, back when he was still dating Bipasha!  And how incredibly clever the direction is with the little notes everywhere!)

(Okay, the overalls are a bit weird, but I find it really sweet that cute confident popular boy Dino Morea is trying so desperately to get Tanisha to look at him)

 

(My absolute favorite song from this movie, and one of my favorites of all time.  I’m going on a car trip this summer, and I am definitely going to be playing it on a loop while I drive!)

Oh, and there’s one other Indian horror movie I know about!  The Fog, with Irrfan Khan!  Possibly the worst movie I have ever seen.  Not “worst” like Bombay Velvet where you just wish you were dead, but “worst” like Plan 9 From Outer Space where nothing makes sense and it is all so cheap and badly done that it’s funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvvI3oXZ6PM

(The whole thing is on youtube!  I’m so happy!  No subtitles, but you don’t really need them)

 

Which is what horror movies used to be like in India!  The “real” ones at least, not the brightened up happy ones with the great songs.  The Ramsey Brothers studio cranked out all this D-grade stuff with no budgets and made modest profits.  And then after Bhoot, suddenly Bhatt films is getting into it, and there’s all this high concept films like “What if Bipasha Basu is a witch AND a movie star?!?!?”  They are definitely less bright and happy then my beloved Taarzan, but at least they still have some good songs.

 

 

 

Oh!  And I almost forgot!  Kaal!  Which, like everyone else in the world, I did not bother to see.  But, also like everyone else in the world, I quite enjoyed Shahrukh’s Item Number!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1H8nrcP4lQ