Although the basic plot of Vaastu Shastra is quite hackneyed – a family moving into a haunted house – what sets the movie apart from other similar ones is the way director Sourabh Usha Narang creates an eerie atmosphere with excellent cinematography and sound effects.
The strength of Vaastu Shastra does not lie in its story, but in the way it has been presented – punctuated with silences and dark spaces. The subconscious mind tends to have more fear of the unseen than the seen, and the director utilizes this point to scare his audience.
The
makers of the film have promoted it as a film scarier than Bhoot. It is partly true because Vaastu Shastra does spook you in a different way, but it is also outstretched at certain places.
While there are certain portions in the movie that test your patience (like the unseen presences inside the house and mingling with the little kid) there are others (like the climax) that end abruptly. By the way, the end of the movie leaves a scope for a sequel.
Another strong point of the movie is convincing performances by its actors. Sushmita Sen impresses with her brilliant portrayal of a protective mother, who is modern enough not to believe in ghosts, but vulnerable enough to be haunted. Chakravarthy too plays his role finely.
But the real star of the movie is the child artist Ahsaas Chana who, despite his age, has given a performance replete with controlled facial expressions and subtle movements that almost passes him off as one of the ‘unseen’ ones in the film.
On the whole, Vaastu Shastra is not so much spooky coz of its story but its eerie silences, its spine-chilling milieu and unexpected twists that take you on a ghostly trip and leave you with a cold and creepy feeling by the time you walk out of the theatre.
