This early 70’s effort by the Ramsay family is considered to be a major breakthrough in South Asian horror. Not only did it score a huge Box office bulls eye but it also paved the way for a new wave of horror that veered away from the genteel white sari-clad ghostly figures of yesteryear to the more gory, blood curdling post-Hammer style that was to become the hallmark of local terror in times to come. The Ramsay's had long been ardent fans of the macabre and especially of the films turned out by the Hammer Studio’s in England. It doesn’t take too long watching a Ramsay film to begin to realize just how much of an influence the Hammer style has been on them.

Do Gaz Zameen ke Neeche is perhaps not quite what one has grown to expect from a typical Ramsay feature – there is no hidden “taekhana” (dungeon) harbouring a dark secret and a dozing hairy monster, there is no “Purani Haveli” being ravaged by the spells of an evil Tantrik. In fact there are no creatures – hairy, fanged, rubber or otherwise throughout the film which makes a refreshing change from atypical “hairy monster” epics of the 80’s and 90’s.

The film begins with scenes of Raja, a hugely wealthy aristocrat cum scientist, mourning the death of his recently departed wife with whom he was evidently madly in love. His moping session is interrupted by the sounds of desperate shrieking and he turns to see a nubile young thing being chased by some nasty good-for-nothing “anti-social” elements through the woods. He hastens after the pack of wolves and rescues the damsel in distress, a young, helpless if slightly overage college girl (she has failed four times in succession she later explains) who is as vulnerable as she is voluptuous. Our aristocratic scientist offers to allow the siren to stay overnight at his place as she has nowhere to go and darkness has set in.

Later that night the nymph like Anju (Shobha) quietly slips into Raja’s bed and when he awakens she explains that she was too scared to sleep all on her own! It doesn’t take long for the two to succumb to their lust and the next morning upon finding Anju weeping at her folly, the good scientist promises to do the right thing by marrying her. All is well to begin with but then a slimy uncle of Anju shows up and starts using Anju to leech off Raja’s wealth. It is soon evident that the two are in collusion and that Anju is far from the meek lass that she had made out to be in snagging her wealthy prey. Bit by bit Anju reveals herself to be the most scheming bitch imaginable who will stop at nothing to achieve what she desires and if it is cold hearted murder that will do the trick for her, so be it!

She recruits her lover Imtiaz Khan to pose as a doctor having poisoned Raja into a state of semi-paralysis and together they plot the poor scientists destruction. Eventually, in a chilling and particularly effective scene, the scheming lovers do away with the poor suffering Raja and dump his corpse into a fresh grave “Do Gaz Zameen ke Neeche” (Two Yards Underground). The slimy uncle, Shobha and Imtiaz then slowly begin to fall out over the loot and major complications begin when nasty things start going bump in the night and worse when a zombiefied Raj is seen prowling about in the vicinity. Upon checking the grave, everyone’s worst fears are confirmed when the corpse found in it isn’t the body of Raj but of the man who was recruited to help bury him. Under extreme duress, Shobha’s relationship with Imtiaz begins to develop serious cracks and they end up at each others throats – then the terror is taken to a new level as the rotting cadaver of Raja makes its presence felt in the most traumatizing manner.

The film manages to grip the viewer’s attention with its intriguing plot of dark deeds and deception. Raja, the gormless, hapless twerp is played with appropriate geekishness by Surendra Kumar though his nerdish behaviour is somewhat deceptive. Shobha is a revelation as the super-bitch Anjali – seductive and coy whenever the occasion suits her and a callous, cold-blooded murderous in pursuit of her dreams. Imtiaz Khan is impressive as the manipulated lover ensnared in the web of the Black Widow Shobha. There isn’t the seedy overt cheap titillation that the Ramsay’s sadly resorted to so often in later production yet there is enough “masala” on display to satisfy local expectations which were still a touch Victorian in the early 70’s. We have scenes where Shobha joins Imtiaz in the bathtub even if she is fully clothed – but he isn’t, - just the kind of scene that was considered fairly “hot” and risqué in those rather pristine early days.

Do Gaz Zameen ke Neeche on the whole is a satisfyingly gripping thriller with a tightly woven plot and numerous chilling scenes without quite being the overt out and out horror show that the Ramsay’s resorted to in times to come. Fortunately there are no painful comic diversions as in the tedious Jagdeep or Narendranath this time around and the film is far better off for it. There is hardly any gore on evidence and it is perhaps strange that this film should be considered such a groundbreaker, as it is not even a conventional horror film ("Full Horror" as they say in local parlance) as such despite its heavy macabre undertones. Yet it was a refreshingly different theme in those days and a welcome step away from the pseudo horror films featuring ghostly white sari clad ladies wailing away hit Lata Mangeshkar songs in the dark misty wilderness. The biggest influence Do Gaz had on the local scene was that its massive success kick started the Ramsay horror production line which was to become the mainstay of Bollywood horror for the next two decades to come. Do Gaz is a thoroughly enjoyable effort from the Ramsay’s that does unfortunately suggest that they didn’t really improve very much with time and experience.