Starring: Introducing Aditya Narayan, Shweta Agrawal, Shubh Joshi and Rahul Dev

Director: Vikram Bhatt

Rating: ***

Aman (Aditya) proposes to Kaaya (Shweta) but soon after that, the same night while going to drop her they meet with a car accident. While luckily both escape unhurt, Kaaya's parents request Aman's parents to forget their daughter.

They reveal to them the curse of a Brahmin father under which there family has been for the last 300 years. Due to this curse no girl in their family can get wed and if she plans to or does then death for her is inevitable.

But a deep in love, Aman decides to fight this curse and free Kaaya from it. He along with his friend Shom (Shubh Joshi) decides to take the help of a famous occult professor Pashupati (Rahul Dev). The professor at first avoids helping Aman but after Aman shows him his dedication by taking a risk with a deadly spirit he decides to help him out.

What shocks and thrills are in store for Aman, Shubh and Pashupati and what happens to Aman and Kaaya's love story because of that forms the rest of the film.

Vikram Bhatt has already proved his mettle with the horror genre with super hits like Raaz and 1920. With Shaapit he takes one big leap forward in terms of story telling and technique. There are more than enough terror moments to keep you on the edge of your seats.

Amongst them the best ones are Aman's daring venture into the haunted library, Kaaya's encounter with the spirit on the highway, all four venturing into a dilapidated cinema house and finally the 23 minutes long climax.

Vikram is well aided with outstanding cinematography by his father, veteran cinematographer Pravin Bhatt. Dialogues by Girish Dhamija and the production design by Rajat Poddar is simply excellent. The costumes by Rahil Raja, especially in the scenes depicting times 300 years also deserve special mention.

Raju Rao's background score is effective. Chirantan Bhatt's music is apt for the film. The problem area for the film however lies with the merging of two back stories which gets confusing towards the end.

Aditya Narayan shows no signs of this film being his debut vehicle as a main lead star. He is extremely natural. Also, it's a rare thing for a Bollywood hero to sing his own songs and sing it really well which he does.

Shweta Agrawal is impressive but sadly has nothing much to do in the second half after she is confined to a hospital bed. Shubh Joshi is just perfect for the part. Rahul Dev has portrayed the nonsense professor very well. Natasha Sinha as the wily queen is good. Murli Sharma, Nishigandha Wad as Shweta's parents act ably.

Shaapit is the perfect film for you if you want to experience some real good chills and thrills. This film establishes the fact that when it comes to handling horror films there is no better director than Vikram Bhatt.