Bandh Darwaza (1990) aka The Closed Door

One really has to wonder how the films of the Ramsay Bros. came about. I do not mean how they came about, but how they came about. What was it like to work on the set of these movies? Uncontrolled chaos? Because that is what watching them feels like. However, Bandh Darwaza, one of their later films is not as deliriously absurd as their earlier Purana Mandir, the film that served as my introduction to this most unique pair of sibling directors. In fact, it is almost more like a straightforward horror film, albeit a very baroque and over-the-top straightforward horror film. The musical numbers and comedy sequences are at a minimum here, and most of the film focuses on the conflict between our heroes and the evil vampire from Black Mountain. Despite the sad absence of the more comedic elements of the Ramsay oeuvre, Bandh Darwaza is an impressive film, especially in the visual department. The set pieces are gloriously larger-than-life, and there is an explosion of pop art color and bizarre camera angles that give the movie the appearance of a comic book brought to life. There is an energy and sense of imagination here that one rarely sees in commercial American cinema anymore. Bandh Darwaza is like a movie from another planet in another galaxy in another dimension. Logic does not exist in this dimension, where an Indian vampire devil dresses like a Victorian count with minions that looked like they stepped out of an episode of The Flintstones. It is some of the most shameless fun one can have watching a movie.