Raaz Reboot movie review: Reboot or rehash?

Director: Vikram Bhatt

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Gaurav Arora and Kriti Kharbanda

The fourth instalment of the Raaz franchise ‘Raaz Reboot’ is anything but scary. Directed by Vikram Bhatt, this film is a sloppy take on the horror genre. I am still trying to fathom what was going through Vikram Bhatt’s mind when he penned down this stale love triangle, with a lovesick ghost vying hard for some attention.

The story centres around a banker Rehaan (Gaurav Arora) who bags a well-paying job in Romania and is in love with Shiana (Kriti Kharbanda). Meanwhile, Shiana breaks up with her boyfriend Aditya and settles with her husband in Romania where they hope to live a happy married life in their huge mansion.

Things, however, take an ugly turn when Shiana is possessed by an evil spirit. On seeing the spirit literally ‘suck the life out’ of Rehaan’s life, Shiana seeks help from her old love Aditya to investigate the case. What happens next is something you’ll have to see for yourself. Will Aditya be successful in performing an exorcism and save Shiana from that evil soul?

Directed by Vikram Bhatt, ‘Raaz Reboot’ makes use of all the clichés to scare the audience and hence falls flat towards the end. The 2001 release ‘Raaz’, which was directed by Vikram Bhatt, was a sincere effort at making a ‘horror flick’ and was able to send a chill down the spine. But like every other sequel, this one also disappoints. ‘Raaz Reboot’ will make you remember how many of our horror films were made in the past with its black crows, hidden pasts, stale love triangles.

Run-of-the-mill dialogues by Girish Dhamija are woven with boring love scenes. The film’s ‘chill factor’ rests on the shoulders of an ugly ghost, who tries hard to scare the audience, but leaves everyone disappointed instead. The facial expressions of the ghost tend to have the opposite effect on the audience and unintentionally bring out more laughs than screams. I guess we can never match the standards of Hollywood demons on screen, be it the background or VFX.

Just one-film-old Gaurav Arora quite literally steals the show. It is commendable how he sweeps away all the attention despite having an established actor like Emraan in the film. Debutante Kriti Kharbanda looks promising throughout and does a fair job as a timid and helpless wife of a rich banker. But Emraan Hashmi? Sigh. Is he still the same actor who gave such fine performances in films like ‘Shanghai’ and his previous horror flicks? His acting here is so awful that the two exorcists perform better in the film. Emraan should spruce up his acting skills as his long track record of flops could easily chuck him out of the race.

Though the film has a few scary scenes, it ends up being a clichéd love story instead of a horror flick. The music by Jeet Ganguly, Sangeet and Sidharthy Haldipur is melodious, especially the title track. However, the movie doesn’t really offer you a solid reason for watching it. ‘Raaz Reboot’ isn’t a must watch this week, catch it only if you are an ardent fan of the Raaz franchise.