Killer B's on DVD: The Bollywood Horror Collection, Pt. 2

Puran Mandir (The Old Temple) is the second feature from Mondo Macabro's Bollywood Horror Collection (the first of which was discussed in last week's installment of Killer B's on DVD), and represents yet another example of Hindi language horror. Directed by the Ramsay Brothers, this film was a huge success in India at the time of its release in 1984, and is in fact the movie credited with launching the short-lived Bollywood horror craze.

Several generations ago, a demon named Samri was sentenced to death for molesting married women, murdering children, and eating corpses. I'm a little fuzzy on why the marital status of the women the demon assaults is an issue, particularly in light of his other offenses. Samri is to be decapitated, and his head and body interred separately to insure that the creature does not rise again. The body is buried near a temple while the head is placed in a box and sealed in a sub-basement of the palace owned by King Hari Man Singh. As insurance, the trident of Shiva is placed on the box, in hopes that the religious artifact's presence will make Samri's death a permanent one. Before his execution, Samri curses Singh so that as long as Samri's head and body are apart, all of Singh's female descendants will die in childbirth, and once the head and body are united, Singh's dynasty will end.

The setting then jumps to India, circa 1984. Rambir Singh is the modern descendant of Hari Man Singh, and the Samri's curse has held strong for several generations. Singh's daughter Suman is in love with a man named Sanjay, but Singh forbids them to be together for fear of the curse. The young lovers will not be dissuaded, though, and they go to visit the long abandoned family palace to prove to Rambir Singh that Samri's curse is just an old superstition. Sanjay's friend Anand and his girlfriend come along for the ride and to provide cannon fodder for the battle with the forces of darkness.

Like its co-feature Bandh Darwaza, Puran Mandir runs far too long and is punctuated with the musical numbers that at the time were a hallmark of Bollywood films. This one also has several action sequences featuring martial arts and sword fighting. As is explained in the disc's text feature "About Bollywood Horror," all these disparate elements, including attempts at humor, were generally added to Bollywood films to give them as much entertainment value as possible; more bang for your buck, if you will. In the case of this film, the humor stems mostly from a sub-plot in which Anand captures a wanted felon and turns him in for the reward, only to help him escape so he can turn him in yet again. This plot thread is a parody of a popular Indian film of the time, but lacking that frame of reference, I found it to be dreadfully unfunny and distracting.

The story of Samri's curse is interesting enough when the movie bothers to deal with it, but the overlong film sags in the middle under the weight of less interesting elements like Suman and Sanjay's star-crossed romance, the aforementioned attempts at humor and the songs ... oh God, the songs. This being a horror film, the fact that the horror elements are little more than bookends, being concentrated at the film's beginning and climax, leaves the impression of a film that is trying to please everyone, but ultimately satisfies no one.

The film opens with the same disclaimer that was used for Bandh Darwaza, stating that, despite any flaws you may see, the print shown here represents the best version of the film possible. "This is not one to show off your new 72-inch plasma screen," it says. The film does show many instances of damage, but I've seen far worse. The disk sports several interesting extras including text pieces on Bollywood horror in general, and The Ramsay Brothers in particular. There is also a featurette explaining how the Samri character is India's answer to Western horror icons like Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees, and a short documentary on South Asian horror.