Gaslight Hindi Movie

Plot twists are always fun, but the best suspense thrillers do not rely solely on the shock value of the revelations. Gaslight is all about shocking the audience with plot twists, which all seem interesting on paper but preposterous in practice. Apr 3, 2023 By Sreejith Mullappilly

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For a whodunit thriller, Pavan Kirpalani's Gaslight has such an intriguing premise. Princess Meesha (Sara Ali Khan) comes home after a long time to meet her father, King Ratan (Shataf Figar). It is Vinod Kumar Sharma's Padam who welcomes her at the railway station instead of the king. The king's second-wife Rukmani (Chitrangada Singh) welcomes her aboard, but he is nowhere to be seen. No one seems to have any idea of the whereabouts of the king. Meanwhile, Meesha starts to see apparitions and hear voices at the sprawling mansion that are enough to make her suspect some foul play.

The build-up of the story is luscious, and the setting is regal. Pavan uses Ragul Dharuman's camera work and Gaurav Chatterjee's haunting background music to build some level of intrigue in the initial portions. There are a couple of decent jump scares, and the plot is reasonably engaging at the start. Then comes the twists one by one, including some you can see from a mile away and others you cannot easily predict. Plot twists are always fun, but the best suspense thrillers do not rely solely on the shock value of the revelations. This film is all about shocking the audience with plot twists, which all seem interesting on paper but preposterous in practice.

It is never easy to make a suspense thriller interesting from the beginning to the end with such a small number of characters. Why? Because the audience knows that the culprit is one of them. So when Gaslight eventually pulls out of the rug from under our feet, it hardly seems suspenseful. Now, it does not help that Pavan and his co-writer Neha Veena Sharma reveal way too much information too early. For instance, we find out the possible identity of a killer from a shadow that appears at a murder site. There is a late attempt to tie all the loose ends, but by then, a sense of inertia sets in.

There is not a lot to write home about with regard to performances, either. Sara Ali Khan is largely unconvincing as a princess who longs for her father's return. Vikrant Massey is getting typecast and cannot escape the generic nature of his role. It is only Chitrangada Singh who brings some sort of authenticity to her role in Gaslight, albeit it being preposterous.