I recently rewatched The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, two Netflix TV shows that could arguably be considered gothic. Not that I understand this genre too well. I am only dipping my toes into it, but stories of this genre have certain quirks. The ones I’ve noticed, anyway—the most obvious ones—include old manor houses and women with trauma going crazy in them. Another example of this genre in the novel that I inhaled last month, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s aptly titled Mexican Gothic.
Which brings me to the 2007 Bollywood movie starring Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan. Bhool Bhulaiyaa.
I rewatched this movie last week on a whim. I was twelve when I first watched it, and I remembered it being very entertaining. And so it was. It has an absolutely appalling approach to discussions of mental health, but I’m willing to forgive this, because what more could I expect from an Akshay Kumar movie, really?
What struck me, though, is how gothic-adjescent this movie seemed to be.
A Hindi remake of Manichitrathazhu, a Malyali movie, Bhool Bhulaiyaa follows roughly the same plotline. Siddharth and his archeologist wife Avni return to India from the US and decide to stay in Siddharth’s ancestral home: a palace believed to be haunted. The heir to a royal line, Siddharth is warned away from staying there, because the ghost has a blood feud with kings. But of course, he doesn’t listen, because…you know. Whatever. If you told me a ghost had it out for me, I’d choose to stay away from its palace, but that’s just me.
To keep them safe, the rest of the family move into the palace too, and weird stuff starts happening: attacks, attempted poisonings, apparitions. The culprit is presumed to be Radha, Siddharth’s childhood friend, who they believe has been possessed by the ghost of Manjulika, who committed suicide after her lover was killed by a jealous king decades ago.
Akshay Kumar shows up partway through as an eccentric psychologist. He reveals that the person behind the supposed haunting is Avni, who is a schizophrenic.
What struck me on this rewatch was the nagging suspicion that this movie, which at times is camp and really funny, and is at times just plain ridiculous, might actually be a gothic horror.
Rachel K Fischer, in The Gothic Aesthetic: From the Ancient Germanic Tribes to the Contemporary Goth Subculture, writes:
Gothic literature described an aesthetic of fear and terror. It also included romance, a Byronic hero, and villains. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn were nineteenth century examples.
Rachel K. Fischer
Funny as it is, Bhool Bhulaiyaa is undoubtedly a ghost story. Another big facet of the genre is the setting. These stories often take place in enormous old houses, rough and windswept moors, and the settings often have a sense of neglect, ruin, and wildness. Indeed, the term “gothic” was used to describe ruins after the Goths sacked Rome.
Which brings me back to the three other gothic stories I’ve encountered. Bly Manor, Hill House, and Mexican Gothic. All three of them take place in a creepy manor, all three of them have complex female leads who are convinced they’re losing their minds, and in all three stories, themes of trauma, suicide, and murder loom large.
So intentionally or not, I would argue that this ridiculous Bollywood movie might have a lot in common with gothic horror. I don’t think that it completely embodies the genre, but it was enough for me to go, Huh. Interesting.
All I can say for sure is that I don’t want Akshay Kumar to be my psychologist.
Damini Kane 