- Release year: 2025
- Director: Paul Antar.
- Producer: Matthew Samuel Kilari.
- Screenplay by: Paul Antar.
- Cinematography by: Kartik Parmar.
- Music by: Ravi Nidamarthy.
Synopsis: an Indian photographer goes back to the informal settlement he grew up in to take a picture, he will get a lot more misery than he bargained for.
Shotgun Commentary: great concept, poor execution.
Review
Srishti is the type of story with a great premise that doesn’t quite know how to develop. By combining the horror factor with tons of other issues, and not quite choosing which message to give priority to, the end result reads a bit like an indecisive jumble.
Nice set-up
The story follows a struggling photographer. He ran away from the poor neighbourhood he used to live in with the dream to become a photographer. And so he did, only not as successfully as he had hoped. As a result, he is coerced into going back to his old neighbourhood to take morbid pictures that will help the owner of a gallery get more investors and money into his pocket. Now, with this storyline alone, one could assume that this is a drama and call it a day. But therein lies the problem, this is not the whole enchilada, we are missing the toppings.
Like all toppings, the horror elements of this film are the best part. Not that the rest isn’t totally worth watching, but it wouldn’t have the same spark without them. And, like all toppings, you are undoubtedly left wanting more. The horror storyline of the feature revolves around a mysterious entity/spirit/being that causes circular ripples in the air and makes strange sounds. It lives in what is known as Sector-K, a forestal section of land. The people who are exposed to it, either disappear or are left with permanent physical and psychological damage.
Nearly there, but not quite
One expects, after learning of this curse and seeing the protagonist saunter into Sector-K, that the story will get bloody, gruesome, and maybe even a little stressful. Sadly, it is none of that. After indirectly promising bleeding eyes and ears, murderous madness, and potentially nightmare-inducing hallucinations, you get… Well, you get a couple of people with no eyes, the unravelling of the aforementioned drama, and an incredibly simple ending featuring Dormammu’s (Doctor Strange, 2016) second cousin.
In fact, this ending might go down as one of the laziest endings that have been reviewed on this blog. It’s a pet peeve of yours truly, lazy endings. If you have bothered writing a whole story, why do you give up at the very end? If you run out of ideas, go big and weird to hide it, like Mr. K (2024), but do something. Merely writing “the end” is not finishing a film. And neither is a fade to black, nor writing your credits over a random sequence of colours.
In defence of the movie, it is possible to read into the ending and imagine a whole paranoia as terrifying as you want to make it. Still, it is so vague that it reads more lazy than it does haunting. Not to mention that the gory aftermath of seeing the creature that was promised at the beginning of the film never actually happens. Furthermore, you expect to be shocked over and over, but none of the scenes end up having any horror of consequence at all. Kinda like an hour-and-a-half, half-sneeze situation that never actually delivers the full sneeze.
Man’s best friend
Another fascinating detail of the film, and this might sound a bit strange, is the puppy featured in it. The cast delivers good performances. Sadly for them, it is hard to pay much attention when there are both a kitten and a puppy featured in some of the scenes. While the kitten seems to be there for pure cuteness value, the presence of the puppy does have an added message that is fascinating to explore.
In a film where we see kids being exploited for the sole purpose of finding a treasure in a junkyard, the puppy in the arms of the exploiter is like a train wreck about to happen, you can’t look away. The kids live in terrible conditions and the exploiter couldn’t care any less about their health or wellbeing. In fact, he even tells a kid to go die elsewhere.
Naturally, this behaviour contrasts greatly with the fact that he carries a puppy around like one would a baby. Only letting it touch the ground once and very carefully. This double standard is but a taste of the hypocrisy that later develops throughout the film. A visual hint that shows the thought put into the dramatic side of the feature.
All in all, Srishti is a film that could have gone far as a drama or if the horror aspect had been developed further. As is, it is an entertaining tale, but offers an overall unsatisfying experience, with an ending that isn’t here nor there, and a development that feels like the writers got tired of their own story as they wrote it. An okay film to watch, but definitely not among the best horror of the year.
Srishti was part of the Raindance Film Festival 2025 programme. Find all the info here!
Advice to take from this movie:
- Sometimes a great idea doesn’t become a great movie.
- Don’t feel the need to go back to your roots if you left for a reason.
- If you consider yourself someone of principle, you can’t just switch principles whenever it is convenient.
What’s your take? Have you watched Srishti? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀