Dybbuk is the official remake of the 2017 Malayalam horror-thriller Ezra, that had starred Prithviraj Sukumaran and Priya Anand in the lead. Jay K, who had written and directed the original, has also helmed the Bollywood remake, which stars Emraan Hashmi and Nikita Dutta. One thing he does is not going for a frame to frame remake of the original, though he retains the plotline and some of the crucial elements intact. Especially the mystic elements of the Jewish lore surrounding the accursed box of Dybbuk. Dybbuk Movie Review: Emraan Hashmi and Nikita Dutta's Horror-Thriller Lacks Good Spooks.

The plot is about a young couple who moves from Mumbai to Mauritius, who are haunted by a vengeful spirit that comes to their new home, after the wife Mahi (Nikita Dutta) buys the Dybbuk from an antiques shop. The husband Sam (Emraan Hashmi) finds out that Mahi has been possessed, and on the advice of the Father who brought him up, he seeks the help of Rabbi Markus (Manav Kaul), as the spirit is of Jewish origins.

Dybbuk retains the flashback elements of Ezra and the twist in the tale, though there is one element that the remake chooses to ignore. Before we get into that, let's look at what's the meaning of the twist.

The Twist

By the time the twist arrives, we learn that the spirit belongs to Ezra (Imaad Shah), a Jewish boy who once lived upon the island and was lynched by a Christian mob for the suicide of his pregnant lover. Cursed into being a vengeful ghost by the black magic rituals of his father, Ezra was bound by the Dybbuk, and whose release meant the whole Mauritius would be doomed. However, while Ezra possessed Mahi and her unborn baby, it found a better host to carry out his plans in Sam.

The spirit can only possess those who has suffered mental agony. Sam, who as a child saw his parents killed in an accident, was in depression for days before being brought out of it. His wife's mental trauma when the spirit possessed her first, made him mentally weak again, and during the night when Mahi killed the neighbour's dog, also gave the spirit the opportunity to take over Sam's body. Though why Mahi continues to act possessed after that is never explained. Was she being possessed by Ezra's lover Norah's spirit then? If that's so, how was Norah  cursed?

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Anyway, that very same night Rabbi Markus finds out the switch when it turns out that not Mahi, but it is Sam who speaking to him in Hebrew as Ezra. OTT Releases of The Week: Soni Razdan's Call My Agent - Bollywood on Netflix, Emraan Hashmi's Dybbuk on Amazon Prime Video, Kriti Sanon's Hum Do Hamare Do on Disney+ Hotstar and More.

So why Sam? Since he works in a nuclear plant, that is already in trouble with the locals for its nuclear wastage disposal plan, the spirit wanted to use him to leak the nuclear radiation to doom the island and its inhabitants.

In the end, Markus manages to trap Ezra's spirit back in the Dybbuk, and they then drop it into the ocean, the very same place where Ezra's body was thrown by his father. The epilogue sees a happy ending for Mahi and Sam, having a baby boy of their own.

What The Remake Ignores

The Malayalam original also included a mid-credit scene that sees a couple of men recovering the Dybbuk from the sea, and thus hinting that the reign of the evil has not ended. It teases the possibility of a squel, which for some reason, Dybbuk has avoided in the remake. The movie is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 29, 2021 06:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).