The latest mystery-thriller to hit your screens is Gaslight, starring Sara Ali Khan, Chitrangada Singh, and Vikrant Massey. While the movie lives up to its name, its effectiveness is questionable. It tries to gaslight the audience into thinking it’s a great thriller when, in reality, it is just a bunch of scenes stitched together to attain peak boredom. Gaslight, though a regular cliched movie, had some potential. With a great cast, the movie should have been great. Unfortunately, it is let down by poor writing, which leads to ineffective performances. Here’s what we thought of Gaslight.
Nothing thrilling about this thriller
For a movie that boasts of being in the mystery-thriller genre, Gaslight lacks any thrill whatsoever. If you watch this movie while sleepy, it will surely lull you to sleep. In fact, you’ll probably need a couple of cups of strong coffee to get you through 111 minutes of pure boredom.
Gaslight tells the story of Meesha Gaikwad (Sara Ali Khan), a paraplegic, young woman who is back home after many years at her father’s insistence. Surprisingly, when she gets home, her father is nowhere to be seen, and everyone at the palace is just making excuses for his disappearance. We are introduced to a bunch of characters, viz. Rukmini (Chitrangada Singh), Meesha’s stepmother, the estate manager, Kapil (Vikrant Massey), the family doctor, Dr Shekhawat (Shishir Sharma), and a few more whose presence in the movie is questionable.
Gaslight tries very hard to build a solid horror/mystery with the disappearance of Meesha’s Daata and her pursuit of the truth. It has a few jumpscares that are just as futile as the rest of the movie. The last 30 minutes of the movie are better than its entire run, with a plot twist you mostly won’t see coming.
The performances in the movie are nothing to write home about. Sara Ali Khan tries her best, but her range is very limited, and hardly does justice to the role. Vikrant Massey is a good actor, but he gives away the mystery through his performance. This is not to say he does a poor job. Chitrangada Singh does a great job but is let down by the poor writing. Akshay Oberoi and Rahul Dev’s roles are unnecessary as they add nothing to the movie.
If you watch this movie because you are bored, you’ll be bored further. But if you just want to watch something for the heck of it, go ahead and give Gaslight a shot.
Gaslight is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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