Bastu Shaap 2016

In a mist-shrouded corner of Darjeeling, two Vaastu Shastra experts, Kushal Parambrata Chatterjee and Timir Kaushik Ganguly, are brought in by Arjun Abir Chatterjee to assess the energy flow of his family’s bungalow. They’re instructed to pose as old friends—Kushal as Arjun’s schoolmate and Timir as Kushal’s business partner—so their arrival feels like a casual reunion rather than a formal inspection of the house.

Arjun introduces them to his elder sister Antara Churni Ganguly and his wife Bonya Raima Sen, who seems to recognize Kushal almost at once, hinting at a past connection the family has kept carefully quiet.

Behind the polished surface, the household is a web of old wounds. Years earlier, a car accident left Arjun with a permanent leg injury, and Antara lost her husband and their only child. Since the accident, Arjun and Bonya have grown distant, while Antara clings to Bonya’s “son” as a surrogate for the child she lost. As Kushal and Timir begin their Vaastu modifications, they quietly navigate these emotional currents, trying to bring balance to a place that aches with memory as much as it does with structural misalignment.

Interleaved with the present-day work are echoes from the past. Kushal and Bonya had once crossed paths after Bonya’s family accident at the hospital, a moment that led to fragile ties between them. Kushal’s wife dies on the day Bonya’s feelings tilt toward him, and Bonya soon grows closer to Arjun as Kushal steps back into his own life. Kushal later notices The Lotus—the painting that hangs in Bonya’s room—adding a symbolic layer to their rekindled connection. Bonya begins to confess a longing that neither Arjun nor the house seems ready to admit, and she asks Kushal to do everything possible to win Arjun back.

Tensions escalate when Arjun challenges Kushal to a duel, with Timir serving as Kushal’s champion. After a tense stalemate, Arjun pushes them toward a sudden-death finale: Bonya would volunteer with a bottle on her head as the target for the shooters. Timir, who understands Kushal’s fear and his deep love for Bonya, deliberately loses the duel to spare her, revealing the true stakes behind their relationship and the fragility of the patriarchal bond that keeps the family bound to the house.

The next morning brings more upheaval. Arjun asks Kushal and Timir to leave, but Kushal requests a different kind of parting: he wants to take Bastu-Shaap—the creeping, living curse rumored to inhabit the home—as a keepsake of the trouble they’ve endured, along with The Lotus, which Arjun says he never liked, though Bonya had wanted to keep it. He also quietly asks Antara to leave Arjun and Bonya to start anew, suggesting she join him at an NGO that helps orphaned children—a move that would let her mothering instincts find a home away from the family’s turmoil.

Antara disappears the next morning, and Arjun heads out to search for her. Kushal departs with Bonya’s request to carry a crystal ball back to her ailing father, hoping it might work once more as a small miracle. As they drive away, Arjun reveals that he had overheard Bonya and Kushal confessing their love for each other when Bonya’s phone inadvertently dialed his number, a revelation that complicates the already fragile dynamics. They eventually meet Antara again on the road, discovering that she has decided to join Kushal at the NGO, carrying the scarf she’d been knitting for the orphaned children.

In the end, the trio—Arjun, Bonya, and Antara—continuously move together through the foggy Darjeeling hills, a family rewritten by pain, memory, and a newfound willingness to redefine what they mean to one another. The house remains a testament to old wounds, but its contours soften as they forge a path forward, leaving behind a sense that life, like the weathered hillside, can shift toward a gentler balance when truth and care finally take the lead.