Shaitani Darinda (1999)
Cast: Harinam Singh, Yunus Parvez, Abhishek, Kishor Bhanushali, Sweta Fule, Rinku Patel, Priya Srivastav
Director: Harinam Singh
Nutshell:  A very curious horror film with a message for ungrateful new female starlets who ruin little producers in their quest for stardom.
Reviewed by Omar Khan

 

Shaitani Darinda is one of those films that seems to have fallen through the cracks. Searches on the Internet yield virtually no information about the film, including its plot or content. Therefore, discovering an old VHS of the film in my collection and finding that it was the work of the legendary Harinam Singh made it essential that the film be watched carefully and diligently, and that the world be let in on this lost entity.

The film begins with the usual stock thunder-and-lightning footage seen in generations of Bollywood horror movies, before a voiceover commands the viewer's attention.

The voice informs the audience that the film is a tale about those small-time producers who discover young female talent, groom their students to perfection, teach them how to walk, talk and present themselves like stars, and even afford them luxurious photoshoots to build their profiles—only for these ungrateful starlets to drop their benefactors in a mess as they sniff greater success and sign on with "big" producers who use them for their own satisfaction.

These ungrateful tarts coldheartedly destroy the small producers who introduced them by refusing to complete their assignments, walking out of productions halfway through and leaving them with huge losses and their films in an incomplete mess.

The film is a sobering tale about what happens not only to the small-time producers but also to the ungrateful women who ditch them when the spirits of producers destroyed by their callous, selfish acts unleash their wrath.

After the voiceover, the film gets underway with Reshma, a young starlet, who her "small" producer calls. He begs her to complete the film she had signed and taken money for, but she scoffs at him, telling him she wouldn't waste her talent on such petty producers and their cheap horror films, since she has now signed on for a big film with a big banner production.

She wouldn't sully her career by associating with trash.

The voice on the phone warns her that she will be murdered at the stroke of midnight and of dire consequences to come. It turns out that this is part of a film, in a sequence reminiscent of the opening scene from Wes Craven's Scream, where a threatening voice from the unknown calls the starlet.

It turns out to be the big producer, who tells her she will face "Maut" at the stroke of midnight—but "Maut" is actually the name of the film she is working on, and she is to sign the paperwork for the job at hand.

The film then switches to a movie set in the middle of a forest where some scenes are being shot. All of a sudden, a figure wearing a long anorak and a rubber mask turns up, and the screaming starts. The crew run for cover from the "bhoot" that has crash-landed on the film set, and all and sundry flee for their lives.

It is sometimes difficult to tell what is part of the film and what is reality.

A young aspiring starlet is grabbed by the bhoot and killed. Frantic calls are made to the police for help, and they begin a search for the masked killer/bhoot.

The body count mounts as the bhoot encounters a woman who is exercising in the middle of the night near the film set and is ravaged.

Then another.

The rampaging bhoot seems to be prancing about in the jungle without a care in the world as he hunts down young females to eliminate. After much discussion among the crew and the identification of the victims, it becomes apparent that the bhoot is targeting new actresses who have ditched their small-time producers and signed with big producers.

The bhoot is out to teach these nasty girls a lesson that will lead them to their graves.

After plenty of chase scenes involving the masked bhoot and squealing women running for cover, we arrive at another interjection from the voiceover to explain the colossal confusion and muddle unfolding onscreen.

We are shown Harinam Singh, a trainer of aspiring young female film stars. He teaches them how to dance, perform, and carry themselves, arming them with all the tools they need to forge successful film careers. He is hard at work day and night, but all his effort is upended when his starlets ditch him for other, more lucrative offers.

Singh sits in his little office, with horror movie posters adorning the walls, calling up his two-timing starlets and trying to get them to see reason. He explains how they will crush his career if they continue treating him this way: starting a film, taking money for the project, shooting a few scenes, and then refusing to complete it once a big producer has spotted them.

At this stage, it seems very much as though Harinam Singh is playing himself in a film akin to a biography of his struggles as a B-grade horror movie producer.

Indeed, the entire plot of Shaitani Darinda begins to feel increasingly like a tale of the hardships he endured as a filmmaker struggling to make movies on modest budgets. It is a pitiful, bitter and sad story about people using others as stepping stones to success and then leaving them in the lurch.

Harinam Singh struggles against the odds, but is repeatedly unsuccessful in persuading his starlets to complete the projects they had promised to be part of.

Eventually, it all becomes too much for him, and he decides to poison himself and escape all this deception. He gulps down some poison, but alas, it doesn't quite do the trick, and he merely passes out.

When he comes to, he decides to take it upon himself to rid the world of such treacherous women who trample over their benefactors.

And so he turns into the vengeful bhoot, becoming an evil spirit!

Meanwhile, Yunus Parvez, a local Tantrik, promises to summon all his powers to rid the film world of the terrible masked bhoot threat that has descended upon it. This footage may well be spliced in from Shaitani Aatma, which would come as no major surprise to Harinam Singh's fans.

There is a fabulous sequence where the bhoot changes faces, and one of the masks that makes an appearance is the legendary mask that became the face of Harinam Singh's masterpiece Khooni Dracula.

The film is shot in darkness most of the time, and all you can see are skimpily dressed starlets bathing, exercising, or simply sitting around semi-naked before being assailed, chased and murdered by the shadowy bhoot. The visual narrative is so messy that the film actually requires a voiceover to explain exactly what is transpiring.

The film is a colossal mess.

However, it does seem to serve as a biographical account of Harinam Singh's troubles as a small-time producer during his career. It could even be footage shot for one of his conventional horror films that went haywire for exactly the reasons he is complaining about, after which he decided to present it as an independent film all the same.

The scenes of the bhoot stalking, chasing and killing his victims are fair enough, but otherwise the film has little coherence. The acting is atrocious, and so much of the action is set in darkness that it is often difficult to make out what's going on!

There are a couple of songs along the way, but they seem randomly placed and neither enhance the story nor make much sense amid the confusion that is Shaitani Darinda.

At best, the film offers a glimpse into the struggles of Harinam Singh, who was never interviewed to discuss his cinematic wonders. It shines a light on the kinds of issues he apparently faced, and his disgruntlement and resentment seem to have led to a film about those realities.

The main reason Shaitani Darinda is of interest is that it potentially sheds more light on Harinam Singh than is otherwise known, as the man remains largely an enigma.

It would be fascinating to know more about him.

Sadly, he is no longer with us. However, there are strong rumours that several of his "classics" have been saved, and who knows? Maybe some of the people who had the honour of working with Singh could come forward and share their experiences with the world, because very little is known about this remarkable filmmaker.

As a film, Shaitani Darinda is as terrible as they come, but as a document, it could well shed some light on the hardships Harinam Singh faced while making his incredible films.