If you are thinking, this is going to be another laughter riot from Priyadarshan, then please go back to you homes and sit back. This movie is NOT a comedy flick. (Thanks to bad promotions) The movie is thriller with bit of comedy. (Priyadarshan trademark types comedy)
Okay, the story is pretty different. (Yeah, I know it is copy of Malyalm movie Manichitrathazhu).
Following is the plot of the movie (from Wikipedia)
The film revolves around a small village/town where the people are very conservative and superstitious. Badri (Manoj Joshi) heads a Brahmin family whose ancestral palace is believed to be haunted. One day, Siddharth (Shiny Ahuja) and Avni (Vidya Balan), the son and daughter-in-law of Badri’s elder brother return to their native village from America and decide to settle down for a month in their ancestral palace.
Events take on a twist when Avni opens a locked forbidden room. As a result, unnatural events start taking place inside the palace. Badri and Batuk Shankar (Paresh Rawal) try to ward off the evil eye with the help of a priest and a parapsychologist. The blame comes to rest squarely on Radha (Amisha Patel), Badri’s adopted daughter. Siddharth brings in his American friend, psychiatrist Dr. Aditya Shrivastav (Akshay Kumar), who uses modern analytical techniques to find out the culprit and solve the mystery.
Now, the review time. What I liked most of the movie was, the ability to mix comedy and thriller together but at the same time, this was the main disadvantage too. All the comedy scenes roaming around Paresh Rawal, Asrani or say Rajpal Yadav looked pretty much natural. (Specially, Paresh Rawal ones.. he is a genius) but when the director tried to let Akshay jump into comedy bandwagon, the things become kind of messy. Though there was couple of very good comedy scenes of him (specially the intro one) but many unnecessary scenes became hurdles in the movie.
In many instances, people were laughing in the serious scenes. Sometimes, I too forgot whether I was watching some thriller movie or comedy.
2nd worst part in the movie was, couple of characters. Specially the character of Sharad. (You should watch the ending for this) In the ending, there was very serious scene between him and Avni, but it simply made people laugh out loud.
3rd worst part was, the length. Editor, should have chopped of couple of songs and few of Akshay’s scenes.
And lastly, director shouldn’t have let Shiney cry.. he looks super funny when he cries.
But there was many good parts too, Vidya Balan takes the first place. Her character was just superb in the 2nd half. But they could have explored her more and could have taken more out of her. 2nd place, Akshay Kumar, despite of having many silly scenes, this guy does his job brilliantly. Then comes Paresh Rawal, like I said earlier, he is a genius. Shiney Ahuja was pretty good leaving some rona dhona apart. Amisha’s role was short and sweet. Rest of the actors were good. (Rajpal yadav was kind of bad in first half but very good in 2nd)
Music was good, actually only 2 songs were good. First one was the title song and 2nd was, Labon Ko.
Direction, was good but could have been much better. Infact, much much better. The story was so strong but the direction was not helping it.
The movie could have been a huge hit if it would have handled well. The promos were also misleading. Everyone thought this was some comedy flick but when they actually watched it, they would something else.
So the reaction in the crowd were mixed, infact I am sure the reaction will be mixed for reviewers too.
I personally liked the movie leaving few scenes aside. I would rate this movie [rating:3/5]. I wish Priyadarshan had handled the movie much more seriously.
Note: If you are planning to watch this movie, watch it in theatre, if you really want to enjoy it. You won’t enjoy watching it on DVD.
hi
I’ll probably safely skip this one…I thought of it as a comedy as well. Thnx for saving my 175 bucks Deep 😛
Great Storyline and script! Stunning suspense! Overall a great movie and a must see movie for this year.
thanx 4 informing me abt how ridiculous the movie is. even i had expected it to be a comedy flick.
Very nice movie! Do not skip this movie! This isnot like other bolly movies..Okay, it is not a complete comedy movie, it is a comic thriller. Comedy is there at right moments, but the second half especially the ending is amazing. Great Movie!
yeh, even I liked the movie… only thing I found wrong is the voice of vidyabalan when she becomes manjulika… I dont know what happens in such cases when a person becomes some other … but I dont think so the voice of tht person becomes as if its a ghost’s voice….
But since they wanted to make it scary they must have changed the voice..
but still…
otherwise whole movie is entertaining… very nicely made… 🙂
hi
nice movie ,,,
There is one thing that I haven’t seen anyone noticing (and doesn’t get reflected in any of the reviews) which sets this movie away from other. Few dialogues and sequences have been purposely put in the movie (not sure if these were there in the original version too) that if watched keenly can leave one feeling really unsure as to whether it was really a case of DID (dissociated identity disorder) or was it really a spirit possessing her.
1. In the beginning of movie workers renovating the palace tell Paresh Rawal that the “bed†that goes into Shiney’s room is so heavy that they will need at least 5 people to pick it. Later, when Shiney at the request of Akshay tells Vidya to not go for shopping, she changes to the dancer personality and lifts the very same bed with one hand? Why would director show this? A person suffering from DID definitely can’t do it however it is generally believed that a person possessed with a spirit have been known to show such extraordinary capabilities. (I am not arguing in favor or existence of spirits, only putting the generally believed facts).
2. If this was only a DID case why would she attack others (Nandini and Akshay), break the camcorder, burn Akshay’s bag and try to hide herself from others until the very end.
3. Although Akshay (erroneously??) says so, a person suffering from DID can’t do things that he / she hasn’t learned such as dancing, speaking another language (Bengali in this case) and so on? So how could she do all that unless she was possessed?
4. Why would her voice change when she changes to the dancer? She never heard dancer speak. Or did her voice change due to dancer’s spirit possessing her (as, it is generally believed, happens when spirits possess).
5. When she put poison in Shiney’s tea that was daytime and not usual night hours when Shiney was asleep and she could easily change personalities. And there was nothing that could have triggered that personality change. It could be better explained with spirit influencing here to put poison the in the tea.
6. The character of exorcist is not that of a fraud. He is shown as well traveled in the parapsychologist community and is well accepted. And he still believes in the science of starts, spirits etc. Akshay too has high regards for him (calls him Guru Ji). He too has high regards for Akshay and says that if he is here then why do they need him. Does it suggest that Akshay too believes in the science of starts and spirits, however, he deals with it with more scientifically acceptable style and approach and explain it in a scientifically acceptable language than that of an exorcist.
5. Akshay refers to parapsychology while dealing with this case. What is parapsychology? Per Wikipedia… Parapsychology (from the Greek: παÏά para, “alongside” + psychology) is the study of ostensibly paranormal psychological phenomena. Phenomena studied include extra-sensory perception (telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance) , psychokinesis, and survival of consciousness after death (reincarnation and hunting); parapsychologists call these phenomena psi, a neutral term non-suggestive of what causes the phenomena or experiences. Does it suggest that in reality not just a case of DID but more of a paranormal phenomenon?
6. Akshay says time and again that this case is outside the realm of the normal psychology and needs a different treatment. What is this different treatment?
7. Unless it was a spirit that had left, how did the other girl who couldn’t speak from beginning got her voice back?
8. If there was only a change of personality, then why did she initially refuse to tell her name and sit and then responded to exorcist when he chanted Mantras and threw ? As generally believed only a person possessed by spirit will respond that way.
9. DID is controversial theory and there is really no unanimity on its existence.
I think writer / director either left it to the viewers to decide or has not-so-overtly told that it is actually a spirit.
mr anand, it is very easy 2 make study of a movie, u r analysing as such u r an oscar winning director, i would simply claim tis movie is the best of this year
Rakesh, Anand raised very valid points.. and it makes everyone think twice about the things we watched..
I liked this movie. Moreover, I loved the entry of Akshay when he is showing the “Auto Rickshaw” motion. I didn’t expect the movie to be a horror movie which it turned out at the end. I must say, Vidya Balan did an excellent job in the end where she was acting to be under influence of Manjullika, it looked so real.
I would recommend seeing this movie at least once with good surround sound system.