Cutting Chai Productions and Sanju Entertainment’s Alipta (Marathi; UA; meaning ‘Different’) is a horror film.
Shekhar (Swapnil Jadhav) and Vidya (Tanvi Hegde) are newly-married. Shekhar’s boss sends him to Dahanu for a month on an assignment of supervising the setting up of a new plant. The boss arranges for their stay in his own bungalow there. In the bungalow, strange things start happening to Vidya, which suggest the presence of a supernatural power, but Shekhar doesn’t seen to be perturbed as he does not believe in ghosts and spirits. The plant supervisor, Diwakar (Bhushan Ghadi), suggests Shekhar to take care of Vidya. Over a few days, the situation worsens. Despite his best efforts, Diwakar is unable to help Shekhar in getting rid of Vidya’s problems as she seems to be possessed by a spirit.
There’s an old man who wanders around the bungalow. He tells Shekhar that his daughter had gone missing since the day she replaced him at work in the bungalow. Things now begin to fall in place for Shekhar who guesses what must’ve happened to the old man’s daughter.
What is the truth about the spirit? Is it the spirit of the old man’s daughter? Why is the ghost after Vidya? What is its aim? Is it able to complete its mission? Does the spirit free Vidya from its clutches?
Swapnil Jadhav’s story has no novelty as similar horror stories have been seen in earlier films. His screenplay is reasonably fast-paced but that doesn’t take care of the lack of freshness. The chills and thrills of a horror drama are diluted in impact because of this very reason of lack of novelty. Swapnil Jadhav’s dialogues are good.
Tanvi Hegde does a fine job as Vidya. Swapnil Jadhav is okay in the role of Shekhar. Bhushan Ghadi’s (as Diwakar) performance is fair. Sunil Dev (as Baba), Sharayu Sonavne (as Jyoti) and Sushant Shelar lend decent support.
Manoj Yerunkar’s direction is ordinary. Rajesh Sawant’s music and Janmejay Patil’s lyrics are okay. Dilip Mestry’s choreography is average. Aniket Karanjkar’s cinematography is quite nice. Mahendra Raut’s sets are alright. Editing (Harshad Vaity) needed to be sharper.
On the whole, Alipta is too routine to stand a chance at the box-office.
Released on 29-10-’21 at Movie Time Chembur (daily 1 show) of Bombay thru Fast Track Entertainment. Publicity & opening: poor.