Purani Haveli
Mansion of Evil

India 1989
produced by
Gangu Ramsay
directed by Shyam Ramsay, Tulsi Ramsay
starring Deepak Parashar, Amita Nangia, Neelam Mehra, Tej Sapru, Satish Shah, Vijay Arora, Shubha, Sikandar, Raj Kishore, Priti Sapru, Anil Dhawan, Shehzad Khan, Narendra Nath, Pinchoo Kapoor, Bhushan Tiwari, Leela Mishra, Shyamalee, Sadhana Khote, Mahesh Rodey, Tushar, Gita Singh, Tina Ghai, A.K.Agnihotri, Chhote Ustad, Sunil Dhawan, Shenaaz, Seema Jain, Manik Irani
story by J.K. Ahuja, screenplay by Arjun Ramsay, dialogue by Kafil Ajar, music by Ajit Singh

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Kumar (Vijay Arora) and his wife Seema (Neelam Mehra) have just bought themselves a mansion sight unseen using the money of their young niece Anita (Amita Nangia), who has lived with them since the dead of her parents. Kumar visits the mansion - and is killed by a metal monster roaming the premises.

Seema in the meantime tries to hook up Anita with her brother Vikram to have a more direct access to her vast inheritance - but Anita is in love with photographer Sunil (Deepak Parashar), and now Anita and Vikram try everythjing to seperate the two of them. Anita's best friend Shobha (Shubha) however is on her side, and she arranges for a little vacation with some friends at above-mentioned mansion to get Anita away from her scheming aunt and spend time with Sunil. Vikram however is with the gang, and at one point he tries to rape Anita, who is only saved by Sunil's timely intervention. Of course, the metal monster is still on the loose, so a few violent deaths do occur, and everybody has bad dreams and stuff, but nobody seems to be to eager to leave the mansion (don't ask why). Eventually, Vikram figures he's fighting a lost battle when it comes to Anita - so he calls his sister Seema to help him, and she soon makes up a plot to lure Sunil to the ruins next door, knock him out, lock him in, and let him die. Only Sunil doesn't die, finds a monster in a sealed up cave, and a hermit who warns him the monster is an offspring of the (Christian) devil and it mustn't be set free otherwise everyone will be killed. Being no fool, Sunil refrains from freeing the monster, instead is led out of the ruins by the hermit. Vikram meanwhile decides he wants to make extra sure that Sunil is dead and returns to the ruins, and when he doesn't find him, he sets free the mnster instead - and all hell breaks loose, as the monster is quick to kill Vikram and Seema besides of some more of Anita's friends, then it wreaks havoc on the mansion, and Anita and Sunil only just manage to escape ... and during their getaway, they rather accidently stumble upon a Christian church, lure the mnster inside, defeat it with holy water and finally kill it by impaling it with a cross ...

Indian horror, Ramsay-style at its best: an old-fashioned storyline, straightforward shocks, somewhat silly-looking yet effective monsters, and trash-horror mainstays aplenty. True, this film will never be considered as a milestone (in the traditional sense of the word) of the horror genre, but it makes an enjoyable 2 1/2 hours of trashy genre entertainment - and sometimes that's all that one really asks for, right?

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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