Going into “Psycho” I had low expectations. The trailer didn’t promise anything extraordinary; and neither did Shaan Shahid’s recent track record as writer-director. However, I wanted to see what Meera had done with the character of the titular “Psycho”. Unfortunately, the answer is “not much”.
What is “Psycho” About?
That is very much the question. Shaan plays lawyer Salman Raza who goes to any lengths to win cases including manufacturing evidence. Sonya Hussyn plays Sarah, another lawyer who is simultaneously his rival and his girlfriend. Javed Sheikh plays a senior lawyer who has retired in his 70s with his younger wife and caretaker played by Meera.
The first half of the film keeps bouncing back and forth between these four characters and Shabbir Jan, who plays a gold and drug smuggler operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan. By the time the ‘Psycho’ is revealed, with a twist so lame that it warrants a facepalm, the film has wasted too much time with these meandering plot lines to warrant any interest.
Meera Is the Only Positive Thing About “Psycho”
Meera is famously adept at playing unstable and psychologically disturbed characters. Her performances in “Khilona”(1996), “Khoye Ho Tum Kahaan”(2001) and even “Baaji”(2019) are a testament to that fact. However, those films at least gave her something to work with.
In “Psycho”, she’s given the most drab and dull dialogue that keeps reverting to “I love you”, or “I’m so happy”. It’s clear that no effort was made to flesh out her character. She does well despite what she’s given, but an actor, no matter how good, can’t carry a film on their own.
When she reveals her psychotic side in the film, I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, even if only for a brief moment. However, the filmmaking around her is so incompetent and lazy that she can’t save this film.
“Psycho” Is Strike Three for Shaan Shahid
After “Arth: The Destination”(2017), and “Zarrar”(2022), “Psycho” is Shaan Shahid’s third nationwide release as a writer-director. All three films contain the same technical flaws which seem to be getting worse every time. These are specifically technical flaws which don’t have anything to do with the screenplay, performances, or direction. However, they’ve ballooned to such gigantic proportions that they can’t be ignored.
Poor Dubbing and Lip Syncing
This is a staple of Shaan Shahid films now. I estimated at least 30-40% of the film (maybe more) is full of shots where the actor’s lips don’t sync with the audio. I don’t mean that the audio and video don’t sync up. I mean what the actors are saying and what is being heard are completely different.
I remember similar shots in “Arth: The Destination”, “Zarrar”, and even “Bullah”. This is lazy filmmaking. Or perhaps, it’s indicative of a larger problem. I surmise that Shaan continuously deviated from his original screenplay as the film evolved. This is a completely natural part of filmmaking, of course. At times new ideas are too good to pass up.
However, directors often reshoot a scene or an entire sequence when this happens. Shaan Shahid seems to be resorting to lazy shortcuts. Is it a lack of resources, effort, creativity? Who knows? All I know for sure is it looks and sounds terrible.
Jittery and Slow-motion Shots
This one carries over from the bad dubbing. I remember seeing a lot of this in “Zarrar”. Jittery and slowmotion shots lingering over figures in the dark, and luxury cars with voiceover exposition dumps.
It’s another example of lazy additions to the film. “Psycho” does this repeatedly to move the film along. Half-baked sequences that come out of nowhere and lead nowhere pepper the film throughout.
Abrupt Musical Cues
Shaan has a bad habit of inserting musical cues or songs into his movies to abruptly shift the tone. In “Arth: The Destination” he inserted comedic music right after Uzma Hassan’s character was beaten in a domestic violence incident. In “Zarrar” he did the same when he introduced Kiran Malik’s character as a serious journalist and then cut to a luxurious vacation in Turkey right after.
In “Psycho”, the same is done to make light of a witness in a rape case. After the witness is done giving testimony, Shaan’s character, Salman Raza, steps up and immediately, the comedic music begins to play, disrupting the somber tone.
Similar tonal shifts occur to take the film from a comedy, to a romance, to a thriller and back again. These shifts destroy the flow of the film and prevent the audience from being invested in the film’s story; if it exists at all.
AI Shots!!
This is the worst offense beyond all others. There are some very clearly AI-generated sequences in the film. While they only last a few seconds, they show how lazy the filmmaking on display is.
A passing shot of a few gold bars, a judge acting annoyed, and another judge reading out a death sentence; they’re not easily noticeable if you’re looking away in sheer embarrassment. However, if you manage to look at the screen for a few seconds, you’ll catch them.
I’m sure we’ll see more filmmakers use AI to make up for their lack of creativity or effort in the future. This is a worldwide detriment to the art of film and art in general and it’s here to stay. A screen veteran like Shaan should not be employing such techniques in his films.
It’s All Just Bad Editing
Film editing doesn’t get the credit it deserves, because it can transform a film dramatically. That’s why quite a few films today have director’s cuts and extended cuts. The final cut of “Psycho” shows just how poor the editing is. A clean cut of the film, if it ever existed, has been turned into a Frankenstein’s monster of sorts. The musical cues, the jittery shots, the AI, and bad dubbing are all symptoms of an overarching problem. Shaan Shahid and his co-editor Majid Cheema (who also worked on Zarrar) are just bad film editors.
Final Verdict
Psycho is a bad film.
What else can I say?
When you think of the word ‘psycho’ with regards to cinema, two major films come to mind. The first is the original Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece “Psycho” starring Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. The second is American Psycho starring Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman. Both characters were murdering psychopaths driven by unique impulses. While watching Shaan Shahid’s “Psycho”, I kept wishing either of the two would jump out of the darkness. That would’ve at least made for an interesting twist.
