“Inspired” movies, by themselves are not harmful, on condition that the inspired product manages not to degenerate into inspired rubbish. The opportunities of churning out this form of rubbish multiply ten fold if all or most of the movies of the same genre has inspired the movie.
If someone were illustrating this rule with an example, “Naina” would make an excellent study. There are of course various other factors contributing to Naina’s status as a premier example of “inspired” rubbish. The fact that even NDTV usually outdoes this movie in the exciting and scary departments is testament to the worthlessness of the movie as an attempt at horror.
Spooky thrills with garish background music, the usual rot about a single murdered mother seeking revenge after death, the expected Hindi movie ending with the exorcist coming to the rescue, at-least one memorably scary moment - describes “Bhoot” - - - at least it was fun.
Naina disappoints terribly with seen before clichés, some melodrama, a confused script and a plot which drags itself to boredom. You find yourself telling “at last the end!!!” a number of times before it all ends and you walk out in a dazed stupor wondering what made you see this. The reason you feel cheated all the more is because the movie absolutely refuses to scare you or even provide the few spooky thrills you go in expecting.
The movie is about Naina (Urmila Matondkar) who has lost her sight in a car accident as a child and has been blind since. She grows up looked after (a little too earnestly) by her Dadiamma (Kamini Khanna) and a cook/maid Parvatamma (Sulabha Arya) in London. Then comes the day Naina goes in for a cornea transplant (the donor cornea coming from Bhuj, India) and then things start going wrong (terribly wrong for the audience), Naina starts seeing dead people OR IS IT enactments of the sequence of death OR IS IT “Death” in the form of the grim reaper (the director is a little confused here) with the provided possible explanation - “when people have wishes unfulfilled they re-perform the process of their death everyday at the same time and place” uttered by some sort of a sadhu in a guest role. Naina’s struggles in trying to understand the concept, the reason for her visions, the remedy, a visit to Bhuj and her journey through 7 days of this hell (close to 2 hours for us) results in a totally forgettable adventure for both Naina and us. Naina at least ends up with probably the most eligible bachelor in the world – Dr. Sameer Patel (a great looking, totally understanding, always there for her, psychiatrist). You might need an “always there for you” psychiatrist after this movie.
The ghosts in Hindi cinema are getting less and less frightening. The notion that a pale, unhealthy looking old man/woman with dark circles under their eyes and with a single point gaze is the ideal ghost should be done away with. Scenes showing gross dead bodies, autopsies, accidents are nothing but gross. At least this movie doesn’t have those hideous green masked monsters. Do the directors here ever wonder what makes movies like Blair witch project, The Others, Omen etc… such awesome horror movies. Also, why do our horror moviemakers always need at tale of retribution as a cause for the haunting? Cannot we come up with anything more interesting than a ghost seeking badla as a reason to visit the physical world?
Ms. Matondkar, you are more talented and deserve better than having to emote with the look of “will I be seeing dead people NOW??” for half the movie and acting hysterical the other half. The lady who plays the role of “Dadiamma”, please stop attempting to act (even in T.V commercials). Khemi’s (Cornea donor from Bhuj) mother – you have done a fair job with the melodrama. Dr. Sameer, you are good looking but have nothing else to do in the movie. Mr. Director (Shripal Morakhia), better luck next time.
ALL DIRECTORS, enough with the Parvatammas and Ramu khakas.
An absolutely forgettable movie, the bland taste of which lingers for exactly 16 minutes after the movie when you are probably contemplating the value of the ticket money spent on this movie and if you are someone who thinks for the society and can see the bigger picture, wondering what makes people spend money and time on movies like these, when they could be sitting at their homes watching some great horror movies on DVDs.
(Non) Recommended watching with fun loving friends or cousins capable of sarcasm and having a good time despite the movie.
P.S – What’s with the ghost under Urmilla’s table at the restaurant (I thought Urmilla could see the scenes of death being reenacted – so… maybe he was a pervert killed for his fetish to sit under those tables where beautiful girls dine and he was reenacting it.)
Thank you, please do comment.