Gaslight Review: What A Waste!

I hoped the big reveal would make Gaslight's skittish stroll to nowhere (even 112 minutes are too long) worthwhile, but the answers end up being embarrassingly obvious around a twist that's pure hokum, notes Sukanya Verma.

Every time a disabled character is at the centre of storytelling in horror and suspense, the tension it triggers and quick thinking it gives rise to has created lasting moments of hell and hair-raising on celluloid.

From classics like Rear Window and Misery to cheesy ones like Curse of Chucky, wheelchair-bound protagonists have led to many racing hearts.

But in Pavan Kirpalani's Gaslight, Sara Ali Khan's paraplegia hardly impacts her character’s actions or opens door for dangers.

If anything, it slows down a morose mystery that unravels at a dreary pace after 'the real Queen of Mayagarh' arrives at her palatial home in Gujarat.

Estranged from her father for many years, the reunion between the royal bloods is further delayed when Meesha (Khan) discovers he's left to attend some unforeseeable business. Wary of her stepmother Rukmini (Chitrangada Singh) whom she resents for driving a wedge between the daddy and daughter, Meesha roams around the glum haveli in anticipation of ominous signs.

Whether the spooky presence she feels is a red herring or real is mined for intrigue through a good deal of Gaslight.

Something is fishy about her father's no-show prompting Meesha to survey all the friends of the family -- a creepy, pompous distant cousin Rana (Akshay Oberoi), a dynasty detesting senior cop Ashok (Rahul Dev) whilst making sly inquiries from Kapil, the estate manager (Vikrant Massey) her father took under his wing as a young boy.

Wishy-washy clues are dropped in visuals of an underwater figure, a birthday party of kids from long ago and Meesha's curious tattoos and zero presence on social media as Gaslight gets busy capturing the bleak air enveloping a lifeless palace and pool in its washed-out frames.

Out of the blue, a blind gypsy woman (Manjiri Pupala) appears before Meesha claiming to know of familiar spirits wanting to connect. And yet, everybody else stays unusually calm as if they already know something or who is behind it.

Is she being brainwashed?

Is she hallucinating?

Is there a sinister force at work?

These are questions Gaslight wants us to ask, but its meandering screenplay, forcing in Macbethian guilt in a mass of jump scares, makes it a challenge to stay curious.

What a waste of a promising title and genuine opportunity to address a socio-psychological malady. Instead, there's some yap on privilege and class divide.

Despite everything, I hoped the big reveal would make Gaslight's skittish stroll to nowhere (even 112 minutes are too long) worthwhile, but the answers end up being embarrassingly obvious around a twist that's pure hokum.

Sans craft or cunning, Gaslight relies on the skills of its likeable cast to do the trick.

Chitrangada Singh's secretive, seductive aura makes Rukmini a piece of cake and, in a better written script, so would her meltdown.

No doubt Vikrant Massey is a skillful performer, but his overfamiliarity in the genre is akin to a spoiler in Gaslight.

At the centre of the storm is Sara Ali Khan, all surreptitious and subdued wearing her vulnerability on her sleeve. There's an emotional fragility about her that makes us want to protect her at all costs from the other side of the screen.

If only Gaslight wouldn't make us feel stupid about it in the end.

Gaslight streams on Disney+Hotstar.