Roohi Is That Ha-ha Horror That Stree Tried To Be

Producer Dinesh Vijan loves the comedy-horror space. Which is why he has returned to it again in Roohi,earlier titled Roohani Afzani, and even  earlier titled Roohi  Afza.  I guess  the chills  got better  and better with each title change.

 The  trailer has a sturdy confident feel to it, as though its team , director Hardik Mehta, producer Vijan and Rajkummar Rao(common to both  Stree  and Roohi) actually belireved  in the eerie  mumbjumbo. They do  project a  fair amount  of glee into the  gore in the trailer.And yes, Janhvi Kapoor makes a cute ghostly spirit, bulging eyes neck rotating  360-degrees  and all.

I did get the feeling that Roohi is  a  bit thin on plot. Then I may be wrong. Besides, how much of a plot did Stree have?

What  I  found disturbing was Rajkummar Rao’s lisp. Are we back to  trying to get laughs  out  of a physical  disability? Varun Sharma most definitely provides some genuine laughs in the trailer . He  asks  Janhvi(and the chudail inside her ) is she will have  non-veg  or veg.When Janhvi in her timid voice answers veg,  Varun reminds  her not to be  selfish.  “Think about the  one inside you.She’s  definitely non-veg.”

  Then there  is  the  DDLJ moment when Varun asks  Jhanvi to palat.  And Jahnvi’s heads does a  complete spin without the rest  of her body turning.All the  three main actors Rao, Kapoor and Sharma seem to have  fun with the  fear fest . Mumbo Jumbo can be  fun if kept on the preposterous plane. I think Roohi gets the point.  Now  if only  the  film lives up  to  the  promise made  by the trailer.