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Bhatt described this film as a concoction of Kasoor and Raaz but forgot to add any element that made those two a success. The leads are dull and flat, the scares are scarce, the thrills are just yawn, and the music is an ear-sore read more
 "A dead-on-arrival horror flick with zero scares")
Cast: Avika Gor, Vardhan Puri, Rahul Dev
Director: Vikram Bhatt
Language: Hindi
I’ve always liked Vikram Bhatt’s earlier brand of cinema that ranged from horror to erotica to action to drama to technology. He was at his best in the 1998 drama Ghulam, a fierce and powerful take on greed, redemption, and revenge. He then made the taut Kasoor, whose music album is still as haunting as it was in 2001. With Raaz, in 2002, he had the most scintillating career high, breathing life into a genre that was nearly dead or reeked of tackiness. All these outings were inspired by the West, but Bhatt, with the help of the man he calls ‘Boss’, Mahesh Bhatt, pumped his own imagination to make them what they are today. In fact, this is the director who gave Emraan Hashmi the best performance of his career right in his debut Footpath (2003).
As times passed and cinema evolved, Bhatt chose to hang on to tell similar stories under the garb of nostalgia. There’s literally a thin line between the two and few filmmakers have got that right, and Bhatt is sadly not one of them. His obsession with sprawling mansions, darkness (both literally and metaphorically), and hushed whispers in the name of restrain have loomed large in almost all his works, even turds like Inteha, 1921, and Judaa Hoke Bhi. He collaborates with his boss again for a film that’s called Bloody Ishq. The title itself arouses no curiosity. It stars Avika Gor as a woman who has lost her memory and is surrounded by mysterious creatures and circumstances. Of course, she has to piece the puzzle together before time runs out on her, and us.
Vikram Bhatt described this film as a concoction of Kasoor and Raaz but forgot to add any element that made those two a success. The leads are dull and flat, the scares are scarce, the thrills are just yawn, and the music is an ear-sore. At least this was one aspect he could’ve done wonders with. Bhatt’s ambitions are never complimented by solid writing. He gave India its first 3D film with Haunted (2011), first creature film with Creature (2014) and first virtual film with Judaa Hoke Bhi (2022). But there was no hulla about any of them, no trace of excitement or anticipation. Technologically, the filmmaker advanced, but everything else dated back to where he all started. Again, there’s a thin line between old school and old fashioned, and Bhatt’s Bloody Ishq has no clue what it wants to be.
Rating: 1.5 (out of 5 stars)
Bloody Ishq is now streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar
Working as an Entertainment journalist for over five years, covering stories, reporting, and interviewing various film personalities of the film industry see more
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English (US) ·