Dak Bangla (1987)

Like so many Ramsay’s, the film begins with a scene of an amorous couple making out in a typically imposing structure – The Dak Bangla. The couple are interrupted in their foreplay by some strange sounds. Upon investigation, it appears that the sounds seem to be emanating from a hidden dungeon below. All is revealed soon enough as something ghastly suddenly emerges from below to slaughter the horrified, fleeing couple.

Time moves on, and the attention focuses on a family entirely unrelated to the Dak Bangla but whose fate will soon draw into its dark aura. The head of the family, Ajay, has been job hunting. Finally, he has to make a decision – scouring the papers, he finds very few opportunities, and just as he is about to give up, he notices an ad for the manager position at the notorious Dak Bangla.

He isn’t too thrilled about leaving the city but has a family to support, so he decides to accept the job. When Ajay and his wife arrive at the adjacent village to the Dak Bangla, they find that the villagers are incredibly rude to them when Ajay is to take up a position at the Dak Bangla. The villagers here despise the presence of the Dak Bangla in their midst just as the folk of Transylvania despised Dracula’s castle on its soil. Anyway, Ajay is undeterred as he has a much-needed job at hand.

The influence of Hammer’s excellent Dracula – Prince of Darkness shines through in the following scenes where the couple arrives at the mysterious Dak Bangla and find that dinner has been laid out for them beforehand. Then they discover that their luggage mysteriously finds its way to their appointed bedrooms. It is evident that someone has been expecting the couple and have made prior arrangements accordingly.

Ajay is quite happy, though but suffers some strange visions and nightmares, suggesting that something terrible once happened here. Gorgeous niece Swapna arrives from college for a vacation and brings along some of her girlfriends, and two guys manage to tag along unexpectedly.

It’s not long before Swapna starts to feel like she has been to this Dak Bangla before. Her dreams are also filled with disturbing visions of herself being murdered, and later she and her boyfriend stumble upon a sort of “Book of the Dead” – written in blood, which explains the dark secrets of the hidden Taekhana. It appears as though Swapna is the reincarnated version of the ex-Rajkumari who once ruled over these parts.

The story goes that the free-spirited Rajkumari had foolishly decided to stop her entourage in an area known for its devil worshipers. As if stopping in the place wasn’t bad enough, the Rajkumari skips off for a romp in the local shrubs without informing anyone and is soon attacked by one of the local goons known as Ozo. The Rajkumari survives, but Ozo is apprehended and sentenced to a most horrible death, following which he is to be walled into the Taekhana.

However, later one of the devil-worshipping overlords manages to dig up Ozo’s rotting remains and proceeds to mummify him. Then, through the tremendous dark powers, he brings the awful dead thing back to life, triggering a gruesome cycle of revenge. It seems that the two of them were caught at it yet again and walled back into the Taekhana.

Still, clearly, something stirs in the dark domain below, and with Swapna’s arrival, the reincarnated Rajkumari –most gruesome revenge is kicked into motion.

Ajay, Swapna and friends have already discovered that the Dak Bangla is not a place to spend a further night. The shady chowkidar of the Dak Bangla who we saw stuffing a corpse into a closet earlier, turns out to be the head of a criminal gang who have just robbed a bank and who now all congregate at the Dak Bangla. Ostensibly to find refuge from the law and provide killing fodder for the marauding Mummy cum Zombie that is unleashed from the bowels of hell in the Taekhana below. Still, now they are held captive by the criminals who have them hostage, not realizing that they are in extreme danger for staying at the Dak Bangla.

Soon the ghastly Mummy with a strangely glowing head and telekinetic powers emerges from the Depths and wreaks most gruesome revenge on anyone who happens to be unfortunate enough to come into its blood-stained path. There are a bunch of quite well-staged killings, including a man whose head is impaled on a spike sticking out of a wall, a head being squashed to head, including eyes popping out and jets of blood flying off in various directions.

One unfortunate soul is pulled underground by the Mummy and eaten! However, as the body count mounts and desperation levels reach breaking point, a chink in the armour of the mummified Zombie is discovered, and Swapna’s dashing young suitor is aided by a robust Ajay manage to give the Mummy a worthy fight. In an exciting climax to what is, on the whole, an above-average Ramsay horror yarn.

The movie’s strengths are that some members of the cast perform their roles rather well, including Swapna in her role and the actor playing Ajay also does well. The locations are stock Ramsay stuff with the imposing Dak Bangla with swinging chandeliers and dodgy electrical circuits. The usual Ramsay horror masala includes disco dancing outdoors, a striptease, long protracted rape scenes, improbable monsters, flashbacks, fangled folklore cum religion.

It is interesting to note that the biggest influences on this film are clearly the old Hammer stuff especially Dracula – Prince of Darkness rather than the newer wave of Elm Street and Evil Dead clones. The standout scene from Dak Bangla is a scene that is also inspired by the resurrection scene in Prince of Darkness. In that film, the blood of a victim is poured onto the dusty ashes of Dracula’s remains breathing deathly life into them once again. In this film the overlord slashes his own wrists in a trance like state, sending mini jets of warm blood onto the Zombie in order to bring it back to life! It’s a fairly run of the mill effort; nothing outstanding nor particularly innovative.

Another big factor in this film being elevated to the above-average category is the absence of the insufferable Jagdeep, unbelievable though it may seem. He must have been too busy to sign on for this particular film.

His absence in the cast is one of the major plus points of the film; though the dapper and equally unfunny Narendranath is very much in evidence, thankfully, even his role is somewhat tapered.

The Mummified Zombie is rather impressive, and the good thing is that Ramsay’s favourite faithful hairy beast was given a well-earned break.