Durgamati

Durgamati
Official release poster
Directed by	G. Ashok
Written by	Dakshesh Chawla G. Ashok Ravinder Randhawa
Screenplay by	Shweta. J. More
Based on	Bhaagamathie
Produced by	Vikram Malhotra Bhushan Kumar Akshay Kumar Krishan Kumar
Starring	Bhumi Pednekar Arshad Warsi Jisshu Sengupta Mahie Gill
Cinematography	Kuldeep Mamania
Edited by	Sanjeev kumar
Music by	Songs: Tanishk Bagchi Naman Adhikari Abhinav Sharma Malini Awasthi Score: Jakes Bejoy
Production companies	Abundantia Entertainment T-Series Cape of Good Films
Distributed by	Amazon Prime Video
Release date	11 December 2020 (2020-12-11)[1]
Running time	156 minutes[2]
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Durgamati is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language horror thriller film directed by G. Ashok which is a remake of his own Telugu-Tamil bilingual film Bhaagamathie (2018).^[3] It stars Bhumi Pednekar as an IAS officer, with Arshad Warsi, Jisshu Sengupta and Mahie Gill playing supporting roles. The film is produced by Bhushan Kumar, Akshay Kumar and Vikram Malhotra under T-Series, Cape of Good Films and Abundantia Entertainment.^[4]

The official announcement for the film was made on 30 November 2019.^[5] First shot was taken on 23 January 2020 in Madhya Pradesh and filming begun there on 30 January.^[6] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film has been available to stream worldwide from 11 December 2020 on Amazon Prime Video.^[1]

Plot[]

The film starts with Ishwar Prasad, a politician who vows to resign from his post if the government fails to recover idols stolen over six months. This troubles his political rivals, who forge a plan to destroy his credibility with CBI Joint Director Satakshi Ganguly and Assistant Commissioner of Police Abhay Singh. The two plan to interrogate IAS Chanchal Chauhan, a close confidante of Ishwar, who is in jail for murdering her fiancé Shakti, Abhay's brother. To avoid attention, they shift her to Durgamati Bungalow, a dilapidated, supposedly haunted house in the outskirts of a city, for the interrogation. The CBI question Chanchal to get some clues against Ishwar, but she repeats that he is a good man and doubts his integrity without proof in a cryptic but leading manner. Later that night, the spirit of Durgamati, the Queen of the house before independence, takes control of Chanchal. The CBI team calls upon a psychiatrist to investigate the matter, who concludes that Chanchal must be schizophrenic as she seems to take on a different persona and narrate some story from a book as if it were her own. He suggests that the CBI commit her to an asylum. However, Abhay suspects that this might be a ploy by her to escape and arranges for a spiritual guru to find out if there is paranormal activity. The guru suggests a few indicators. Later, Abhay discovers that those indicators indicate the presence of ghosts in the bungalow. He also finds Chanchal hurting herself under the influence of the spirit. This leads to Abhay taking Chanchal to a mental hospital. Ishwar visits her at the mental asylum, and it is revealed that Chanchal had planned the entire thing to escape the CBI in return for a 300 Crore kickback from Ishwar. It is also shown that Ishwar had forced Chanchal to kill Shakti (her fiancé) to hide his scam regarding a welfare project. Meanwhile, Satakshi realizes that Chanchal was trying to convey the truth of Ishwar's crimes using the story of Queen Durgamati, which she came across from the various writings and artifacts she had discovered in the bungalow. She also finds evidence of Ishwar's misdeeds and the site where he hid the villagers after killing Shakti with a gun. Thus vindicated, Chanchal is seen running a charity organization in memory of Shakti. Satakshi then tells her that they thought they knew everything about her but never knew that she was a great magician in her childhood and learned Arabic. Chanchal replies by saying that she does not know Arabic, which shocks them, hinting that there was actual paranormal activity in the house.

Cast[]

• Bhumi Pednekar as Chanchal Chauhan IAS / Durgamati
• Arshad Warsi as Central Minister Ishwar Prasad, the main antagonist^[7]
• Jisshu Sengupta as ACP Abhay Singh (Shakti's Elder Brother)^[8]
• Mahie Gill as CBI Chief Satakshi Ganguly^[9]
• Karan Kapadia as Shakti Singh^[7]
• Prabhat Raghunandan as Ajay Yadav
• Ashok Sharma as Ajay's father
• Dhanraj as Nand Singh
• Brij Bhushan Shukla as Gopi
• Ada Singh as Satakshi's daughter
• Shoeb Ali as Sodhi
• Shubhendra Gupta as Analyser
• Chandan Vicky Roy as Darruk
• Amit Behl as Jose
• K. Durga Prasad as Selvam
• Muskan Lalwani as Malti Sharma
• Anant Mahadevan as Psychiatrist
• Tanya Abrol as PSI Peetal Devi (Constable)

Release[]

On 23 November 2020, the title of the film was changed to Durgavati from Durgamati.^[10][11][12]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was available to stream worldwide from 11 December 2020 on Amazon Prime Video.^[1] The film's satellite rights were sold to Sony Max.

Reception[]

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Joginder Tuteja of Planet Bollywood gave the film 2.5/5 stars writing 'Durgamati-An Entertaining Horror Drama with Abbas Mustan Style twist pe twist'. He Concluded that 'All in all, Durgamati turns out to be one of those rare films (especially in the current times) that you can watch comfortably with your family. Play it on and you won't be disappointed.

Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of Times of India gave the film 2.5/5 stars by saying that 'Durgamati is relevant but the storytelling lacks the spirit it needed'. She praised Sengupta's performance by saying that he charms us the way he always does, effortlessly. She concluded that Durgamati could be delivered better.^[13]

Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost gave the film 1.5/5 stars opining that 'Bhumi Pednekar toplines a horror flick that's deader than the dead woman at its centre'. She went on to say that Bhumi is capable of capturing viewer attention and hearts.

Vaibhavi V Risbood of Pinkvilla too gave the film 2.5/5 stars and wrote 'Pednekar's thriller is like remarks on a report card-Can Do Better'!.

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV have the film 1 star out of 5 saying 'Bhumi Pednekar's ghost story puts the dread of bad cinema in us' He said that Bhumi plunges into the role with enthusiasm, but fails.

Anupama Chopra, Editor-in-Chief of Film Companion, wrote, "My big takeaway from Durgamati was Kakorrhaphiophobia, which means the fear of failure. I had never heard the word before. In the film, it’s used by a psychiatrist who solemnly declares that this might be the issue with Chanchal, an IAS officer who seems to be possessed by the ghost of a long-dead queen."^[14]

Soundtrack[]

The film's music was composed by Tanishk Bagchi, Naman Adhikari, Abhinav Sharma and Malini Awasthi while lyrics written by Tanishk Bagchi and Dipti Misra.

References[]

• "Durgamati Review: Bhumi Pednekar's Ghost Story Puts Dread Of Bad Cinema In Us". ndtv.com. Retrieved 18 December 2020.

External links[]

• Durgamati at IMDb
• Durgamati on Bollywood Hungama
• "Durgamati Review: Bhumi Pednekar's Ghost Story Puts Dread Of Bad Cinema In Us". ndtv.com. Retrieved 18 December 2020.