Gaslight begins with scenes of a boatman, a river, and a lifeless person underwater. Is it enough to arouse one’s interest? Absolutely not. At best, they offer a taste of a psychological thriller that aims to blur the boundary between the terrifying and the interesting, the perplexing and the tangible. The end product is a muddled mixture.
Gaslight, directed by Pavan Kirpalani and currently streaming on Disney+Hotstar, is unable to shake off a desultory and pale covering that clings to it throughout the film’s 100-minute runtime.
What Gaslight does right, which Kirpalani co-wrote with Neha Veena Sharma, is insufficient to compensate for what it gets wrong. It contains a tiny cast of performers in undemanding, low-bandwidth roles, half-decent writing, and intriguing atmospherics. They do not work together well enough to offer the reward you would anticipate from a thrilling whodunit.
Gaslight is a technically polished production with parts and ingredients that blend quite well together, thanks to Ragul Dharuman’s cinematography, Chandan Arora’s editing, Anirban Sengupta’s sound design, and Gaurav Chatterji’s background soundtrack. Yet, alas, none of it penetrates under the surface of the dull film.
Meesha (Sara Ali Khan), a young woman in a wheelchair, goes home for the first time in 15 years, to a palace somewhere in Gujarat, after rejecting her royal inheritance. On the Mayagarh estate’s letterhead, she receives a mournful note from her father, ‘Raja Sahab’ Ratan Singh Gaekwad (Shataf Figar in a now-you-see-him-now-you-don’t appearance).
But, when Meesha arrives at the palace, she discovers that her father has gone missing. The Raja is said to be visiting the family’s salt fields and negotiating with agitated workers. She has no reason to doubt that piece of information until things start to become strange.
Rukmini, Meesha’s stepmother, greets her at the royal portico (Chirangda Singh). “Welcome home,” says the latter. Yet it’s apparent as day – although there isn’t much of it in the film – that the two women’s relationship is icy.
Secrets lurk in the palace’s shadows as Meesha snoops around at night. She notices a bizarre apparition at the end of a corridor: the silhouette of a guy wearing a magician’s cloak and cap and carrying a light. Is her father lurking in the labyrinths?
Meesha is positive that the man she has seen is her missing father, but Doctor Shekhawat dismisses her theory (Shishir Sharma). Meesha’s stepmother believes she has just seen Kapil (Vikrant Massey), the estate manager who recently returned on an errand.
An egotistical cousin of Meesha’s, Rana Jai Singh (Akshay Oberoi), whose relationship with the Raja and his estate is steeped in mystery, and the town’s caretaker of police, Ashok Tanwar (Rahul Dev), who isn’t much help either, add to the intrigue.
The case of the missing king becomes increasingly perplexing as Meesha and Kapil search for clues only to come up empty-handed. The youthful scion of the Mayagarh royal estate is at risk of being labeled mentally ill. She still claims to have seen her father at the palace.
The main issue with Gaslight is that the film’s big reveal is visible from a mile and a half away. It does not come as a surprise when it is ultimately shown to the audience.
All that has to be determined from this point on – we already know who is up to what – are the modus operandi and compulsions at work.
Whatever is occurring to Meesha is clearly part of psychological pressure techniques set in motion by someone – or something – who has caused them to feel that the homecoming of the prodigal princess is an annoyance.
Meesha, who is already dealing with the consequences of a rough upbringing, a shattered home, the suicide of a close relative, and an injury that has rendered her wheelchair-bound for life, must maintain her composure in the face of unnerving provocations and revelations.
Regardless of their first impact of the paranormal, the mind games that the female protagonist is exposed to swiftly run out of the element of amazement. As a result, the picture lacks steam and intensity.
Apart from her talkative, bouncy girl parts, Sara Ali Khan plays a tortured young lady. Like the rest of the film, her sincere performance is inconsistent. It just does not transfer into the fuel required by Gaslight to provide a semblance of brilliance.
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Chitrangda Singh portrays a lady whose attractiveness stems from her ability to conceal her wants and secrets behind a pleasant exterior. For the most part, she succeeds. Moving away from his customary portrayal of the clean-cut, easy-to-trust guy, Vikrant Massey has a role he can sink his teeth into. The screenplay is just too unpredictable to be a reliable ally for the performer.
Akshay Oberoi, expertly mixing the suave and the sly, makes every inch of an underwritten supporting character count. Unfortunately, it is all spent in the service of a futile cause.
Gaslight is a film that looks for a route out of a dark alleyway in vain.
