The Ramsay Brothers are pioneers of Indian horror cinema. Their father, F.U. Ramsay, was an electronics shop owner and film producer, and they went on to produce and direct a string of B-grade horror films throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s. Like other Bollywood films of the time, the Ramsay Brothers’ horror fables are moralistic, replete with dance numbers and broad comedic interludes, and, of course, romance. What makes the Ramsay Brothers’ films so special, however, is the stylistic freedom the horror genre awarded them. Their lighting is moody and their sets are dreamlike, their monsters fanged and grotesque, and their camera is energetic—tilting, swooping, and violently zooming when the time is right (or, let’s be honest, whenever really).
Bandh Darwaza (1990), which translates to The Closed Door, is the Ramsay Brothers’ take on Dracula. The film resembles the Hammer and Shaw Brothers co-production The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), with its unique blend of eastern and western fixtures (both a crucifix and the Quran are used to vanquish the villain in Bandh Darwaza), as well as its comic book action, color, and framing. Bandh Darwaza even borrows music cues from the Hammer Dracula series to bolster certain moments of gothic dread. The plot revolves around a Dracula-like creature, Nevia (Anirudh Agarwal), hidden away in a complex of creepy ruins on the Black Mountain. This imposing vampire is on the hunt for blood and women to help promulgate his evil legacy. When Thakurain Lajjo (Beena Banerjee) and her husband cannot conceive a child, the wealthy woman, with the help of her maid, Mahuah (Aruna Irani), a minion of Nevia, agrees to accept the creature's help. Years later, when the child, Kamya (Kunika Sadanand), is 18, she resurrects Nevia once again. The Ramsay Brothers’ classic story is told diffusely through a series of tonal shifts that combine song-and-dance numbers with nightmare-like explorations of Nevia’s otherworldly sanctum.
Bandh Darwaza bears a unique resemblance to Bram Stoker’s novel, in the sense that Nevia is always looming, even when he’s not on screen. His tomb is seemingly only a short distance from where our heroes live, love, and sleep. As in Dracula, there is a steady ebb and flow of rising and falling action that’s almost banal in its realism, which Stoker achieves through his novel’s diary framing device. Similarly, in the Ramsay Brothers’ film, life goes on with birthday parties and courtship continuing even as the creature on Black Mountain lives nearby. There is a dream logic behind the proximity of the monster, but the fantasy geography makes sense within the film’s fairytale narrative. It is within this fairytale framework that the Ramsay Brothers’ film departs from Dracula in key ways, integrating elements of Tom Thumb in addition to including a generational, somewhat psychosexual, curse similar to the one in Robert Eggers’s recent Nosferatu remake. Heavy synths, massive spider webs, copious fog, and music lifted from several films (including Friday the 13th) make Bandh Darwaza a delirious cinematic feast.
Bandh Darwaza screens tonight, March 18, at Spectacle Theater as part of the series “Doom Boom: Bollywood Horror from the Ramsay Brothers.”
