This south horror-drama from Madras was one of several of the rapidly proliferating Exorcist spin offs produced in India in the late 70’s and early 80’s. First of all we had the enjoyable Jadu Tona that was then followed by Gehrayee and this film. Mangalsutra was a departure from the norm in that the victim of the disgruntled spirit was not the usual pubescent girl but a full-grown man.

CLICK to watch terrifying levitation scene

The first third of the film is rather tedious with romance taking precedence – a number of forgettable songs establishing our couple to be the perfect match made in heaven. When the wedding day finally arrives, inexplicable events start to occur. Some black ink that seems to have arrived from nowhere scars a wedding invitation with Rekha’s picture on it. Then, moments later a stack of the same wedding cards are somehow caught in an unworldly gust of wind and sent flying out of the window scattering all over the field outside. Then when the wedding ceremony is in full swing, more strange events occur as while performing the ritual “saath pheras” (seven circles) the ceremonial knot that bonds the marrying couple suddenly catches fire – a series of dreadful omens to suggest that somebody out there isn’t too thrilled at the prospect of the marriage between Vijay (Anant Nag) and Gayatri (Rekha).

Even the local wildlife isn’t too thrilled at the prospect as they unleash a particularly vicious bull to wreak havoc on the bride’s (baraat) entourage. Despite the bulls heroics the marriage is completed though not without alarm as the knot catches fire and a mangalsutra explodes! If that wasn’t bad enough, not long after the marriage, Vijay turns into a scowling demon with a booming voice and blue contact lenses and starts behaving very strangely indeed. The film then becomes a battleground between the forces of tradition and religious virtue and the dark forces of evil in the form of the Prema Narayan’s disgruntled spirit that invades and possesses Vijai. When the chips are down Rekha, the epitome of the perfect traditional Indian sati savitri wife takes to belting out long bhajans imploring Shiv ji to “jaago” and if he doesn’t dare respond to her plea, she threatens to bash her head on the temple stones until it explodes!

Poor Shivji isn’t left much choice in the matter so he musters the usual thunderbolts and lightening before sending a chubby cherub to give the dutiful (and profusely bleeding) Rekha the prasad that will save her husband from the ravages of the nasty spirit of Ms. Narayan. Apparently she had been a college friend of Vijai’s who had pledged to snag her man and when all her efforts fail and finally as she is confronted by her own death she pledges to destroy the man who dared to reject her. However she hadn’t bargained for the fact that she would be pitted against the powers of the great Shivji of Mahableshwar as well as the majesty of the local tantrik and his set of awesome moustaches and sharp and pointy trident.

Poor Rekha has to face the wrath of the vengeance filled spirit of Kamini (Prema Narayan) and a day trip to Mahableshwar to plead with the devi turns into one heck of a nightmare. Having bashed her head against the rocks to convince the devi of her faith she wasn’t feeling too hot to begin with, but then evil spirit forces her car to skid off the road at high speed. Rekha survives almost certain death to crawl home to save her ailing husband. Yet having battled against the fury of the demonic forces she finds that the blessed prasad that the devi gave her to take home has been usurped by the wretched Kamini who appears to be winning her battle to destroy the hapless Vijai after all.

All appears lost but then one would do well to remind oneself of the famous saying…………”bhagwan ke ghar der ho sakta hai, andher nahin” (all is never lost in the house of Bhagwan) and so it proves with Gayitri dashing off to the home shrine and demanding the gods that she be shown some compassion for her years of unwavering belief. However, will the power of Gayitri’s devotion to Shiv ji prove enough or will the the deluded bitch of a ghost Kamini manage to destroy the mild mannered geek Vijai (doing everyone a favour) and avoid the tantrik’s razor sharp trishul in the process.

All is revealed in a less than thrilling climax where some Cretaceous age special effects (including a mindboggling levitation scene) rather undermine the show. A superimposed Kamini is suddenly given chase by a magic flame sent by Shiv ji and moments later the misery is all over! The film is less than successful as an exercise in horror due to the fact that there is far too much time devoted to the dreary romantic scenes as well as the comic banter between the two in-law families of Gayitri’s parents and Vijai’s parents. As if that wasn’t enough to slow the pace to a crawl, there is also an insufferable dose of “regular” comedy featuring Bollywood horror essentials Jagdeep and Narendranath. Together they take up large chunks of screen time and as though to torture the audience deliberately to the very limits – a song featuring Jagdeep and the T Sisters (Jayshree and Meena) is also featured.

The other reason this film fails to make even the slightest impact is due to the failed experiment of having the man as the victim rather than the woman. Its one of the unwritten rules of horror films that the victim must be a woman – and this film is more evidence in that favour. Though not a terrible film it pales hugely in comparison to the vastly superior and uncannily similar Gehrayee, which was also released around the same time.