1920: The Evil Returns is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language supernatural horror film written by Vikram Bhatt and directed by Bhushan Patel. A quasi-sequel to the 2008 film 1920,[3] and the second of the 1920 film series, it stars Aftab Shivdasani, Tia Bajpai, Vidya Malvade and Sharad Kelkar.[4] The film is third in a series of quasi-sequels released under the Bhatt Banner including Raaz – The Mystery Continues, Murder 2, Jism 2, Jannat 2 and Raaz 3D each of which had nothing to do with their respective prequels, but somehow fell in the same genre following a similar story. The trailer was released on 28 September 2012.
| 1920: The Evil Returns | |
|---|---|
 Movie poster | |
| Directed by | Bhushan Patel |
| Written by | Vikram Bhatt Sanjy Masoom (Tamil Dialogue) |
| Screenplay by | Rensil D'Silva |
| Produced by | Vikram Bhatt[1] |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Naren Gedia |
| Edited by | Swapnil Raj |
| Music by |
|
Production companies | ASA Productions and Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. |
| Distributed by | Reliance Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 119 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹90 million[2] |
| Box office | ₹280.4 million[2] |
The film released on 2 November 2012 to mixed reception and fared better at the opening Box Office weekend (122.7 million Net.) as compared to any other releases that week except Skyfall (270 million Net.).[5] U Dinesh Kumar, Professor at IIM Bangalore and his team worked with Ami Shah of IntelliAssist, the company that carried out the social media marketing for the film, and assessed Internet activities and campaigns with the case study later published by Harvard Business Publishing.[6][7][8]
Plot
editIn 1920, Jaidev Verma is a famous poet who lives as a loner as he is unable to meet the love of his life, Smriti. They got to know each other through an exchange of letters and slowly fell in love. One day, Jaidev receives a letter informing him that Smriti had died in an accident. His sister Karuna is the only support system that keeps him motivated. Jaidev finds an unconscious girl near a lake and brings her home. After gaining consciousness, she is unable to remember anything from her life except Jaidev's poems. Karuna becomes skeptical of her presence in the house and gets even more so when an undertaker warns them of an evil spirit inside her.
Jaidev is insistent on keeping her at home since he feels a connection to her. He names her Sangeeta, and she experiences frightening phenomena, vomiting iron nails and seeing ghosts in her room. On their way to see a doctor, Sangeeta gets possessed by the ghost. To save her, the only person Jaidev can turn to is the cemetery keeper. Slowly Jaidev gets to know that Sangeeta is actually his lost love, Smriti. He goes to Smriti's address to find out the truth about her. He discovers that Karuna had come there earlier, asking about Smriti. Jaidev returns home and finds Karuna's body hanging in the forest with suicide notes around it. From Karuna's letters, he learns that his best friend Amar, who envied Jaidev's success, assaulted Karuna. When Amar discovered that Jaidev loved Smriti, he went to her, posing as Jaidev, and took her to his residence in Shimla to abuse her, but in the process, Amar was killed. It is his spirit that now possesses Smriti.
The cemetery keeper warns Jaidev that the spirit is very vengeful and has to be deceitfully taken to the same place it all happened — Amar's residence in Shimla. Once Smriti touches Amar's corpse, Amar's spirit will have to leave Smriti's body and return to his own body; the corpse can then be set on fire, releasing Amar's spirit from the karmic cycle of life and death. While doing this, Smriti must not know where she is being taken; else the spirit will also know. So Smriti is made unconscious and fully wrapped in a sacred cloth. They reach Amar's house, but the cemetery keeper trips, and the sacred cloth moves away from Smriti's face, awakening the spirit. The possessed Smriti kills all except Jaidev.
Jaidev is badly injured in the battle against the spirit. The spirit in Smriti's body burns Amar's corpse, thus forever remaining in her body. Jaidev helplessly pleads with the spirit to kill him, since there is no meaning in letting him live if the spirit will take Smriti from him. Amar's spirit refuses, saying that this is exactly what he wanted: for Jaidev to suffer. Jaidev cuts a rope attached to a loft in the ceiling; a corpse falls from there, landing on Smriti and making contact with her. It is revealed in a flashback that Jaidev and the group had hidden the real corpse of Amar in the ceiling as precaution. The corpse comes alive as Amar is forced to return to his original body. Enraged, Amar's corpse tries to kill Smriti, but Jaidev saves her and sets Amar's corpse on fire, thus freeing Amar's spirit. Jaidev and Smriti get married, and the film ends as they consummate their union.
Cast
edit- Aftab Shivdasani as Jaidev Verma
- Tia Bajpai as Smriti/Sangeeta
- Vidya Malvade as Karuna Verma
- Sharad Kelkar as Amar (evil Spirit)
- Vicky Ahuja as Bankimlal
- Sanjay Sharma as Bhola
- Tarakesh Chauhan as the doctor in the town hospital
- Naresh Sharma as the driver of a horse carriage[9]
- Yogesh Tripathi as Chand
- Falguni Rajani as Smriti's landlord
Soundtrack
edit| 1920 Evil Returns | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | |
| Released | 9 October 2012[10] |
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack |
| Length | 27:20 |
| Language | Hindi |
| Label | T-Series |
The music for the film was composed by Chirantan Bhatt and the lyrics written by Shakeel Azmi, Junaid Wasi & Manoj Yadav. The music got positive reviews from critics.
Hindi
edit| No. | Title | Lyrics | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Apna Mujhe Tu Laga" | Shakeel Azmi | Sonu Nigam | 6:06 |
| 2. | "Uska Hi Banana" | Junaid Wasi | Arijit Singh | 5:28 |
| 3. | "Jaavedaan Hai" | Shakeel Azmi | KK, Suzanne D'Mello | 5:48 |
| 4. | "Khud Ko Tere" | Shakeel Azmi | Mahalakshmi Iyer | 5:07 |
| 5. | "Majboor Tu Bhi Kahin" | Manoj Yadav | Amit Mishra | 4:53 |
| Total length: | 27:20 | |||
Tamil
edit| No. | Title | Lyrics | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Kattayam" | Sanjay Masoom | Various Artists | 1:20 |
| 2. | "Uyire" | Sanjay Masoom | Arijit Singh | 4:48 |
| Total length: | 6:08 | |||
Critical reception
editRenuka Vyavahare of Times of India gave it 3 stars. "1920 gives you the creeps...watch it." said ToI.[11] Rediff Movies said "1920 Evil Returns is yet another needless horror film. It's cold and bland." and gave it 1 star.[12] Roshni Devi of Koimoi gave it 2 stars. "Watch it only if you're desperate for some uninspiring horror. Give it a rest otherwise." wrote Roshni Devi.[13] Social Movie Rating site MOZVO gave it a rating of 2.3 putting it in 'Below Average' category.[14] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 2.5 stars.[15]
Box office
edit1920 – Evil Returns had a decent opening weekend where it collected around ₹115 million (US$1.4 million) nett.[16] The film had a good first week and collected ₹160 million (US$1.9 million) nett.[17] It had collected around ₹45.0 million (US$540,000) nett in its second week taking its total to ₹205 million (US$2.5 million) nett.[18] It finished at ₹229 million (US$2.7 million) in the domestic market.
Sequel
editThe reasonable success of 1920 – Evil Returns prompted producer Vikram Bhatt to plan another sequel. "I will be making another sequel to 1920. We are working on the script right now. It is too early to talk about it as we are developing the concept for it", Vikram said in an interview. It was also revealed that the film would not be in 3D. The sequel to the movie was later named as 1920 London, and released on 6 May 2016.
References
edit- ^ "» 1920 Evil Returns reviews Read reviews by rajeev masand, Taran adarsh bollywood hungama, anupam chopra hindustan times boxoffice collection". Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
- ^ a b "1920 - Evil Returns - Movie - Box Office India". www.boxofficeindia.com. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
- ^ "'1920-Evil Returns' will be different from the rest: Aftab". Indian Express. 23 April 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
- ^ "Aftab Shivdasani signs his first horror movie". MiD DAY. 22 August 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
- ^ "1920 Evil Returns is a surprise hit at the box office". bollyspice.com. 6 November 2012. Archived from the original on 18 July 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
- ^ "1920 Evil Returns – Bollywood and Social Media Marketing". Harvard Business Publishing. 1 September 2013. Archived from the original on 25 May 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
- ^ "IIM-B scripts case on digital promos of Bollywood film". The Hindu Business Line. 28 January 2014. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
- ^ "IIMB case study on the film". IIM Bangalore. Archived from the original on 17 February 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
- ^ "hauhted Cast & Crew". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 23 January 2012.
- ^ "1920 Evil Returns – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". youtube. Jio Saavn. Archived from the original on 5 December 2020. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
- ^ "1920: The Evil Returns". Times of India. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ "Review: 1920: Evil Returns is not scary at all". Rediff. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
- ^ "1920 – Evil Returns Review". koimoi.com. 2 November 2012. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ "1920 – Evil Returns Review". MOZVO. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ "1920 – Evil Returns". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ "1920 – Evil Returns Has Solid Weekend". boxofficeindia. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
- ^ "1920 – Evil Returns Week One Territorial Breakdown". boxofficeindia. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
- ^ "Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Son of Sardaar Score at the Box Office". boxofficeindia. Archived from the original on 19 November 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2012.