Written and directed by debutant Jay K, the original Malayalam film Ezra (2017) is a decent supernatural thriller made on a novel and interesting premise of a Dybbuk–an antique box possessed by a spirit.
With the reference to Jewish folklore and centuries-old backstory of a tragedy, Ezra is not any outstanding film, to be honest. But it’s indeed a sincere, watchable attempt that delivers the scares, focusing on the lady of the house and her husband in particular. Interestingly, while watching Ezra, I had serious doubts about its remake working in Hindi and hence was not expecting anything surprisingly new in Dybbuk, its official Hindi version.
Proving the same, the remake stands nowhere close to Ezra and also turns out to be quite a casual version, missing the thrills and scares enjoyed in the original (inspired from the 2012 American film The Possession) . Strangely, it has also been directed by Jay K, who fails to recreate the similar ambience with a different cast and set-up. Starring Emraan Hashmi in the lead, a fresh face of Nikita, and everything revolving around the colonial era, Dybbuk entirely looks like a routine Vikram Bhatt horror film offering all cliché content. While Emraan remains the same, Nikita tries her best and Manav Kaul seems to be miscast in the role of a Rabbi. Even the camerawork, background score, and visual effects remain far less effective compared to Ezra.
The result forces us to think that what exactly happens to the same film and director when they remake their own creation in Hindi? How come the product looks so pale and unexciting in the Hindi version remains the crucial question. A related mystery also lies in the different durations. The original Ezra has 147 minutes written in its censor certificate, whereas both the Malayalam and Hindi dubbed versions available online are of 136 minutes. But more importantly, the official Hindi remake is of just 112 minutes keeping the major sequences as it is and leaving out the rest. Maybe that is the reason it lacks the feel, impact, or essence, and thus is not recommended, when the original is also available online in the dubbed Hindi version.
So the choice is all yours, to see a better original film with English subtitles/dubbed form, or go for the remake, just because it’s a new horror film released featuring some known names. As always, BTC strongly recommends seeing the original Malayalam film with English subtitles.
Rating : 2 / 5
For interested friends, here is the link for the short BTC review of EZRA (Malayalam/2017)
https://www.bobbytalkscinema.com/recentpost/EZRA-Malayalam2017-Decent-1951
