Gaslight Review: The movie on Disney+ Hotstar stars Sara Ali Khan as Meesha, Vikrant Massey as Kapil, Chitrangda Singh as Rukmani, Akshay Oberoi as Rana, along with Rahul Dev and Shishir Sharma. Directed by Pavan Kirpalani, it is written by Neha Sharma and Pavan. The mystery thriller is produced by Ramesh Taurani and Akshay Puri. The cinematography is by Ragul Dharuman.
Gaurav Chaterji composed the background music, and Amit Mehta has penned the dialogues. The runtime is of 110 minutes. The movie has English subtitles.
Gaslight Movie Review Contains Spoilers
Meesha, a paraplegic woman, returns home years later to meet her estranged father. Her father has remarried another woman, Rukmini. After returning, Meesha believes that her father is dead. The closer she gets to finding the truth, the more she is confused about what’s real and what’s not. What exactly happens to Meesha and her father? We find out everything.
The first hour of Gaslight is just Meesha asking where her father is, assuming he’s dead and experiencing some “scary” incidents. Director Pavan Kirpalani has presented it as a horror movie. There are so many jump scares, yet no frights. They don’t look convincingly spooky at all. The creepy loud music played during these jump scares does nothing. Sara, who plays Meesha, has one consistent expression throughout.
In the second hour, things start to unfold, but the first hour is so tedious you predict who can be the murderer. There are 100 out of 100 chances that your prediction will be right. After all, when the screenplay is stagnant for so long, as a viewer, you have no choice but to make sense of what’s happening. Taapsee Pannu’s Blurr had the same issues. The makers focused so much on treating it like a horror movie with the jumpscares, when they should have concentrated more on the story.
In an attempt to present it as a scary movie, most of the first half is set in pitch darkness at night. Hence, some scenes are unclear. It feels like watching the movie on low brightness. You just hear noise and see very little.
After the killer’s identity twist, there’s another revelation about Meesha. I want to appreciate the twist, but it also irks me about the waste of time in the initial hour and some innocent deaths. The first hour would’ve had something riveting happening.
The lagging screenplay, presenting the thriller as a horror story with innumerable failed spooky scenes and waiting till the end for all the twists to unravel tests your patience. What could’ve been a taut thriller becomes a joke that’s not even funny. The climax has so much going on that you forget how the mess started.
Sara Ali Khan has a constant frowny expression in every situation. She needs to be more convincing with her dialogue delivery, showing emotions of fear or concern. Vikrant Massey and Chitrangda Singh have played their parts well. But the roles were way below their calibre.
Gaslight Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, Gaslight on Disney+ Hotstar fails to gaslight you with its ‘what’s real, what’s fake’ story. It makes you impatient for the story to make sense with the sluggish screenplay (especially in the first half). The forced attempt to make it look scary gives away the major reveal that none of the incidents happening in the first half is real. Hence, everything else becomes predictable.
The movie is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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