A HORROR FILM BY SUJOY GHOSH
Though spooky, Sujoy Ghosh’s Typewriter doesn’t leave you wanting more
WWhen Sacred Games released last year, it set a bar for production values that were rarely seen on Indian television. It replaced awkward mid shots, shoddy editing and flat lighting with careful art direction and cinematography. Sujoy Ghosh’s Netflix horror series, Typewriter, lives up to this new idiom of visual storytelling. It situates itself in a Goa village, finds a magnificent mansion as a central character and then luxuriously plays with sharp lights and shadows. With the cinematography and editing working to its advantage, Typewriter jumps straight into the usual horror tropes—a haunted house with a dark history, a new family in the area, whispering locals, passing shadows and
disembodied sounds. A set of characters and stories from two different timelines all move ineluctably towards the fulfilment of a prophecy about the blood moon night. Four children that run a ghost club are convinced of this prophecy that has been put down in a book, credited to the dead owner of Bardez Villa. The story moves almost entirely on account of their meddlesomeness. At the house, an old typewriter is restored to its position in the study. A man of unknown intent is looking for this typewriter with violent zeal. The new owner of the villa, Jenny, is out trying to remember her time as a child in this house. And all this while, an evil spirit, which seems to prefer daylight, is out on the prowl. Sujoy Ghosh deftly employs multiple plot elements to have enough flesh for five entertaining episodes. The close of each episode hits the right spots to induce binge watching, but Typewriter trips over its ghost club. The group appears to serve the singular purpose of standing in to provide a gullibility that would make adults seem idiotic. Without the nuance of, say, The Haunting of Hill House, Typewriter is simply another horror story which operates within old templates. It has the thrills but inspires no anticipation for another season. ■