Since watching Umberto Lenzi's 1974 Giallo film Spasmo,I have been franticly searching up and down the internet,attempting to find out if there has ever been a Bollywood Giallo, (or to give it another name: "Bollyallo!")which I could pick up,to introduce my friend to the genre.After having spent the first six months of the year,falling to track down any Giallo based Bollywood film,I reluctantly excepted that I had hit a dead end in my long search Shortly after giving up on the search,I began to read up about a film by Lucio Fulchi called The Psychic (aka:The Seven Notes in Nero).As I got near to the bottom of the page,I almost ended up jumping out of my chair,when I noticed on the page,the it said that a 1991 Bollywood film had been made,"inspired" by the film, called 100 Days.With my interest in seeing the Italian Giallo film genre,being blended into a Bollywood film (!!) reaching fever pitch,I decided that I had to get hold of the film right away.The plot:During a game of tennis,college student Devi suddenly, gets hit with a chilling vision of a woman being brutally murdered.Talking to her sister, Rama the next day,Devi is told that she must have had a bad daydream,and that she should try and "chill out" more.Later on that night,just as Rama is getting ready for bed,a person dressed in a long black coat,with black gloves appears from out of nowhere, (although someone else seems to have expected the person appearance,due to them standing outside Rama's bedroom)and stabs Rama to death.Wanting to hide the dead body,the murderer decides to keep Rama's body hidden in a disused mansion,behind a re-built wall,for it to never be discovered.Five years later:Having never completely gotten over the visions that she had of her own sister being killed,the family of Devi feel the it is time that they help Devi to "move on",by her getting married to a wealthy businessman called Kumar Ram Kumar.Although Devi's first reaction is one of total disgust,at the "slimey" Kumar,both of them eventually warm to each other (which is partly helped by Devi breaking one of Kumar's house windows!.)To celebrate his new marriage,Kumar announces to his wife that he has brought an old mansion,where they can spend the rest of their married life in bliss.Soon after the couples arrival at the mansion,Devi's "visions" come back with a kick,with her constantly seeing the image of a woman drowning.Walking around the house,Devi feels a chill in the air,when she gets close to a very out-of-place wall.Feeling that something important is behind,she tears the wall down,and discovers a skeleton,that is wearing a necklace which her "missing" sister Rama used to wear,When the police arrive at the scene,a cop gives Devi the dreadful news,that due to how little there is left of the corpse,they have hardly any chance at all to verify the body.Hearing this,Devi decides that she is going to take the biggest risk of her life,by trying to stop the visions from becoming a reality,and to at last find the person that killed her sister.View on the film:Although Bollywood now seems to have gotten rid of the idea of being "inspired" by other films,to instead just "photo copy" them,with some films, (such as a "remake" of Man On Fire from a few years a go,which used the exact same dialogue and scenes for the whole film,with the only difference being that the actors are not speaking in English!.)Thankfully here,screenwriters Bhushan Banmail and Devjyoti Roy have chosen to go down the "inspired" route,which means that whilst the outline of Fulchi's brilliant film is very see able,this film still has enough of its own things to make it stand on its own.For the screenplay Banmail and Roy do very well at mostly making a "backwards" Bollywood,with the "wedding bliss" that was used for the ending of most Bollywoood films at the time,actually being the moment where Devi's life starts to sink into the abyss.Looking at Partho Ghosh's (who since this film,has changed from making pretty good "inspired" by films,to instead making absolutely terrible "photo copy" films)efficient directing,it always seems that he has the most interest in the Giallo elements of the film,whilst reluctantly including quite a few "Bollywood Romance" moments.For the fantastic Giallo moments,Ghosh's gives the film an excellent foggy/raining look,and having the mysterious killer blending perfectly into the environment.Due to the film having several ladies in leading roles,Ghosh's unexpectedly shows a very strong influence of Dario Argento's supernatural horror Suspiria, with all of the girls having a stunning ,slightly edgy "fairy tale" look,and also wearing some night cloths,which are very eyebrow raising,especially since the film was made during the early,"wholesome" 90's of Indian cinema. Final view on the film:A pretty confused,but always interesting "Bolly Giallo",with a creative script,solid directing and great performances,from the sadly over-looked cast members.

100 Days is a Amazing Great Thriller from Bollywood. Slightly borrowed from Hollywood movie Eyes of Laura Mars, 100 Days Impresses the viewers. Madhuri Dixit is the main character in this movie. Looking sexy as usual, Madhuri delivers a Great performance. Jackie Shroff Plays the Actor of the movie with some negative shades. I remember when i saw this when it came out new. I was about 6 years old then, the movie scared me a little. For those who have not seen this movie, do not get fooled by the unusual title. The movie is called 100 days for a reason. Madhuri has many Scary premonitions in this movie, which turn real. This is a Bollywood Delight. If you fancy seeing a spooky Bollywood thriller, this is for you.

Devi (Madhuri Dixit) is a "precog", or precognizant--she gets visions of some events before they occur. Near the beginning of the film she receives a vision of her sister, Rama (Sabeeha), being killed, so she desperately tries to stop what she believes is inevitable. Before she can take action, her sister disappears. We move five years into the future. After accidentally ending up at the wrong wedding, Ram Kumar (Jackie Shroff) sees Devi and falls in love. He buys the bungalow next to Devi's and courts her. Soon after, Devi begins receiving another vision of a woman being murdered--only this time she doesn't know the identity of the victim. Can she find out who the woman is before it is too late? For a film that is occasionally very schizophrenic, 100 Days holds together extremely well, even seeming tightly focused overall. The disparate elements come by way of the typical range of genres in a Bollywood film. For example, in the middle of the opening thriller material, all of a sudden director Parto Ghosh breaks out into goofy musical number, complete with faux-action/adventure/crime elements interspersed with pie throwing and a fashion display that's right out of a Kajagoogoo video--in other words, heavy 1980s style ala leg warmers, big hair, skinny ties and so on. Then for much of the first hour or so, 100 Days becomes more of a light romantic comedy. The thriller material returns stronger in the second half, although the musical numbers still tend to lighten the mood more than they ideally should.The tone of the film, then, is a strong contrast to some of the work of other Indian horror/thriller directors such as Ram Gopal Varma, who has famously forgone musical numbers in films such as Raat (1992), as has Guddu Dhanoa in films such as Hawa (2003). But Ghosh manages to tie everything together so that the romantic elements, musical numbers and comic relief (especially in characters such as Balam, played by Laxmikrant Berde) not only provide a balance for the more intense material, but seem integral to the film--100 Days wouldn't be quite as good as it is in absence of any of its varied moods. Heck, Ghosh even makes repeated footage seem as if it's necessary rather than just being padding.And of course these different elements help set 100 Days apart from its precursor on the horror/thriller end, Lucio Fulci's Sette note in nero (1977), which also has elements of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Black Cat" (originally published in 1843). Ghosh also adds a number of interesting, recurring motifs, such as the pervasive conch shells, the statues/taxidermy specimens and the water symbolism, which helps bring to mind later films with a relation to "The Black Cat", such as Byeong-ki Ahn's Phone (2002).The performances throughout are very good. Of course it's primarily up to Dixit to help tie all of the threads together, but she receives a lot of help from Shroff, Berde, Javed Jaffrey as Devi's friend Sunil, and Jay Kalgutar as Jagmohan. At first I was lamenting Berde's relative absence later in the film, but as he's strictly comic relief, this was necessary. By the end, Ghosh is only concerned with increasing a roller coaster-like intensity, which he does effectively. Rather than continuing comic relief, he adds other elements to the overarching thriller atmosphere, such as a big action scene set in a junkyard that showcases some impressive stunts.Anyone who is a fan of the average Bollywood film and who also likes western thrillers should enjoy 100 Days.

Spoiler alert As a fan of major studio production movies from India, 'Bollywood' as called, I found this to be a great, almost exact remake of the classic 1977 Italian 'giallo' thriller Seven notes in Black directed by Lucio Fulci.The premise is the basically the same; a young clairvoyant woman has a vision of a murder and of the victim being walled up in an old house. Years later, she batters down the wall and finds the skeletal remains. She, with the help of a parapsychologist friend, try to solve the mystery of who the victim is and if the killer is still out there. The first hour more or less drags along with the woman, Deva, being introduced and meeting her future husband and after a nice courtship, they get married. Only during the second half does the movie really take off with the discovery of the body.In the similarities between the Fulci film and this are many, with few differences. In the Fulci movie the heroine has her fragmented disjointed visions while driving through a road tunnel, here she has the visions while swimming in her backyard swimming pool. The yellow French cigarette burning in the ashtray in the Fulci film is replaced here by a light cigar. The magazine with a photo a young woman on the cover (the murder victim) is replaced by a photo of a racehorse. Also the incriminating letter detailing who the killer in The Psychic, is replaced here by a videotape with the English title: '100 Days' showing the killing. But basically the plotlines are all the same with the climatic chase, the murders, and even the now memorable wristwatch the heroine wears midway through the film which makes a loud beeping sound on the hour which gives away her hiding place as the killer is chasing her, and reveals her location when she's incapitated. In the Lucio Fulci film, the watch instead plays a haunting tune rather than a loud beeping. In addition to the long dramatic opening hour, also added was an extended version of the climax which brings on a more upbeat ending. A fan of international films, I found this to be quite enjoying, not just for Indian citizens, but any fans of mystery-horror-thrillers regardless of their country of origin. Fans of Lucio Fulci who have seen The Psychic, check this one out.