Rating: 2.75/5
Banners: Eros International, Alumbra Entertainment
Cast: JD, Alayna Sharma, Manisha Koirala, Madhu Shalini and others
Music: Sandeep Chowta
Cinematographers: Ravichandran, Harshraj Shroff
Editing: Sunil Wadhwani
Screenplay, direction: Ram Gopal Varma
Producer: Jitendra Jain
Release date: 12/10/2012
The new age master of horror Ram Gopal Varma is back and this time he has come up with a 3D treat to scare the wits out of the audience. Whether he was successful let us see.
Story
Tarun (JD) moves along with his wife Namrata (Manisha) and kids Taman and Nimmi (Alayna) to a bungalow which is offered at a cheap rent. Soon, they are joined by Tarun’s sister (Madhu Shalini) who comes on a vacation. The story takes a turn when Nimmi starts talking about the presence of her friend Shabbo who is not seen or heard by the others in home. But creepy things begin to happen during the night and getting a doubt Tarun’s sister fixes cameras without anyone’s knowledge. The camera captures Nimmi and her invisible friend Shabbo much to the horror of Tarun and others. What happens after that forms the rest of the story.
Performances
JD Chakravarthy has come up with a decent performance and he gives the right kind of expressions during critical scenes. His dubbing was also in sync without any accent issues.
Manisha Koirala looks old and in fact she looks a little grown up than Chakravarthy clearly. Her expressions were alright but that didn’t convey the emotions rightly.
Madhu Shalini is a visual feast. She is confident, expressive and despite all the fear factor and creepy sounds, her long legs and sensuous looks brought a good amount of relief.
Alayna Sharma was very cute and her eyes are quite mesmerizing. While the regular part she was able to do well, the climax scenes were a bit unconvincing. Overall, she did a very good job.
The others such as the little boy, servant, the inspector did their bit as required and added value.
Highlights
- Cinematography
- Sound
- Technical values
Drawbacks
- Climax
Analysis
When a film is coming from Ram Gopal Varma, the audience knows what is to be expected from him and not. But for someone who has revived the horror genre over the past two decades and gave sleepless nights to many, the expectations would be generally higher. This time again, RGV focuses on the camera angles, the sound effects, the lighting and other departments but he missed out on the main element, storytelling.
Since the plot was almost obvious it was important to have a strong screenplay and gripping moments but that was not to be seen. Few scenes went slow. But despite such shortcomings, Ramu is successful in his mission this time in narration part. He has already mentioned that his objective is to scare the audience and that he does in many places. The very crucial thing to focus on in this film is the climax and the way it ends. The clash between human and supernatural forces is always there but ultimately it is the human race which should win and with a dose of divine help it sounds even better. But the unconventional man that Ramu is, he gave a totally different ending which could lead to an anti-sentiment.
That way, the reactions are going to be extreme. At the box office, those who like something different will enjoy this film but the regular audience who are used to a formula of horror may find this hard to accept.
Bottomline: Can be watched without much expectation
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
