Gaslight movie review: Sara Ali Khan gives her all to a thriller that swings between pulsating and predictable

Cast: Sara Ali Khan, Vikrant Massey, Chitrangda Singh, Rahul Dev, Akshay Oberoi

Director: Pavan Kirpalani

Language: Hindi

The opening scene of Gaslight suggests we are going to come back to this moment, and the story will inform us how it all happened, and why it happened. This is something that has been happening for long now, where the screenplay is written such that we see the same scene twice, once as a glimpse, and when all the clutter is pieced together. Think of Sriram Raghavan’s Andhadhun, which began, and also (almost) ended with a car crash and a gun shot gone wrong.

The story is about a wheel-chair bound girl Meesha, played by Sara Ali Khan, who comes to her mansion and finds her father missing. There’s a stepmother named Rukmani (Chitrangda Singh), a caretaker (Vikrant Massey), a doctor (Shishir Sharma), a distant cousin (a hammy Akshay Oberoi), and an investigative officer (Rahul Dev). It’s all very Raat Akeli Haiish, sans the carefully crafted complexities of the characters. It never digs deep, only throws information to us about who’s what and why so.

What does impress is how director Pavan Kirpalani saves some of his better stuff for the film and not for the trailer. There are some jolting shots and jump scare moments one wasn’t really prepared for. The film begins to veer into the territory of horror after what seemed merely a thriller. The camerawork too works in favor of the atmospheric tension of the narrative, as it lingers on almost all the corners of the mansion, especially some demonic and devilish paintings on the wall. Given Kirpalani is the man behind the 2011 sleeper-hit Ragini MMS, he knows a thing or two about noir.

A place where everyone seems a stranger, Meesha befriends loneliness and the haunting memories of her father, which leads her to hallucinating about his existence around. And that leads to some eerie and unsettling experiences that threaten to derail her mental and emotional balance. Of course, anyone who has seen and sensed this genre, knows it’s all a trap for her for a larger gain. All we have to figure out is who’s behind all of this. The reveal is as predictable as Mumbai Indians losing their first match of the IPL nearly every season.

The moment the search begins, Gaslight begins to derail. The writing, at times, is perplexing; for instance, Meesha doesn’t have an iota of social media footprints, as described by Rukmini, but we never see her with her phone either. The character of Rukmini, is shrouded in a lot of mystery but also someone whose intentions are very easy to predict. Genuine question: Since Singh plays a royal character, was she being restrained in her performance or just plain wooden?

The other problem with Gaslight is how it wants to be a step ahead of the audience. The moment you think the reveal is over and it’s the end, it throws yet another twist that seems more inconsequential than imaginative. And no matter how hard Vikrant Massey tries, he’s shot down by the vague material. Coming to Sara Ali Khan, after Love Aaj Kal and Coolie No 1, Gaslight isn’t a performance she would remember as horrible for sure. If that’s enough light for her for the time being.

Gaslight is now streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar

Rating: 2.5 (out of 5 stars)

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