Sannata (1981)

The Ramsays, flushed by their early successes, tried to repeat a similar formula they had employed in their initial box office hit Do Gaz Zameen ke Neeche with Sannata. A film starring 80’s horror regulars Sarika and the dashing if rather embarrassingly effete Deepak Parashar.

The storyline involves scheming “uncles” trying to outdo one another to usurp the family inheritance. In the thick of it is sultry Do Gaz vamp Shobha who is in cahoots with a mysterious shadowy prowler butchering family members in the grand old Haveli one by one. The film meanders for a good 45 minutes before settling down to the business, when most viewers would already have given up.

However, once it gets going, it is relatively interesting.
Sarika plays the feisty daughter of a benign murdered landlord and is the rightful heir to the family fortunes, but her conniving uncle Bharat Kapoor and Shobha have other ideas. Deepak Parashar, prancing around like a pansy and looking as pretty as one, turns in his usual truly horrendously camp performance. Lalita Pawar, squinting away, does her thing as Rosie, the good-natured convent warden and Pinchoo Kapoor ably supports them as a wise old lawyer and Iftikhar sleepwalking through yet another role as a police inspector.

There are cameos by Vinod Mehra as the CBI detective and his wife Bindiya Goswami and by Vijai Arora as a slimy secretary. A fairly impressive cast assembled by the Ramsay’s for what seems like Do Gaz Zameen ke Neeche part 2. However, while Do Gaz was tightly woven and had a strong narrative sense, this film is a mess, to begin with, even if it does slowly improve as the plot finally gets down to business one-third of the way through the movie.

Though certainly not a Ramsay classic and far inferior to Do Gaz this film is nevertheless a reasonably entertaining effort. Like Do Gaz, the film is more of a twist laden murder mystery thriller than an outright horror flick. During the latter half of the film, horror elements are brought to the fore as the masked killer stalks his victims in a manner reminiscent of The Mystery of the Wax Museum and The House of Wax.

Amazingly one of the more memorable scenes of the film is a song picturised on veteran comedian Mehmood along with petite Jayshree T. The song itself is sung rather well by the superb Hemlata and horribly by Mehmood and is not in Hindi but is a terribly catchy number with an irresistible lilt to it – an obscure little Rajesh Roshan gem that got away.

One particularly memorable death sequence is shot like a crazy version of Psycho’s shower scene! There are also some genuinely eerie sequences as the masked figure, looking like he has borrowed the same mask used in Do gaz starts to stalk and menace members of the Haveli. This film finds the Ramsay brothers far from their inspired best. However, there are still several fine sequences along the way – enough certainly to illustrate why the Ramsays have carved out an impressive reputation for themselves in Bollywood horror history.

Sannata is not a vintage Ramsay effort but still has enough going to make for exciting viewing. If all else fails, one can always marvel at Deepak Parashar’s lissom and enthusiastic dance moves!