Sanchita
1920: Horrors Of The Heart marks the Bollywood debut of Balika Vadhu star Avika Gor. However, this flick is as formulaic as it gets, stuffed to the brim with all the horror cliches and laughable VFX. Has nothing new to offer.
Read Full 1920 Horrors Of The Heart Movie Review –
Rating – 2.5/5
Director – Krishna Bhatt
Cast – Avika Gor, Barkha Bisht, Ketaki Kulkarni, Amit Behl
Runtime – 2h 2m
Storyline:
Meghna (Avika Gor) is devastated when her father dies by suicide. A hideous man with a half-burnt body skulks around in the shadows at the funeral and even haunts Meghna’s dreams.
Meghna then finds out that her father’s dying wish is to take vengeance against Meghna’s mother (Barkha Bisht) – who allegedly ran away, abandoning them to poverty. Meghna vows to the vengeful spirit of her father that she’ll fulfill his revenge.
She arrives at her mother’s palatial mansion and discovers that the latter is happily married to the aristocrat Shantanu (Rahul Dev), with a sweet 16-year-old daughter. A resentful Meghna then targets her innocent step-sister (Ketaki Kulkarni), setting in motion a chain of events that make her mother’s life hell!
What Do We Think:
Balika Vadhu star Avika Gor makes her Bollywood debut with 1920: Horrors Of The Heart. This addition to the 1920 horror franchise is as formulaic as it gets and has nothing new to offer.
1920: Horrors Of The Heart is quite an outdated film with laughable VFX and an extremely predictable plotline. It is saturated with all the horror cliches which get monotonous after a while. The jumpscares don’t elicit any terror, in fact, some will make you chuckle unintentionally. The excess of CGI is tacky and the visual of the half-burnt Pandit is comical and straight out of Aahat.
That being said, the 1st half is at least somewhat promising and could have had a better impact if the emotional core of the story was developed strongly. But the emotion remains surface level, sacrificed in favour of cringe melodrama.
After the possession plot starts, it is standard horror fare as usual, nothing too exciting or horrifying happens. It’s all – been there done that. The climax slightly redeems the passé plotline though.
Avika Gor is decent enough in some scenes but resorts to hammy acting in the emotional sequences. The chemistry between Avika and her love interest played by Danish Pandor is lacklustre. Their misplaced sex scene is awkward and obviously just meant to titillate the audience.
Barkha Bisht is underutilized in this horror flick, Danish Pandor is rigid in his performance and Rahul Dev is just there. Ketaki Kulkarni-Avika Gor’s dynamic is cute and should have been fleshed out richly but it is glossed over quickly.
Horros of the Heart continues the saga of tacky, era-inappropriate costumes prevalent in the 1920 franchise. But the music is good, especially the Lori song.
Hit Or Miss:
Go catch this flick at the theatres if you’re extremely bored and want an easy, no-brainer horror flick. Otherwise, this one’s a pass.
