Movie review: Ragini MMS 2 is hardly a spine-chilling tale
Ragini MMS 2
Director: Bhushan Patel.
Cast: Sunny Leone, Parvin Dabas, Sandhya Mridul, Divya Dutta, Karan Mehra.
Rating:
For a film which is billing itself as India's first horrex (horror and sex) genre film, Ragini MMS 2 is hardly a spine-chilling tale. Ironically, the sequel to the 2011 film, which had genuine scream-inducing scenes, works better at tickling the funny bone. If the film continued to be a parody of the making of a horror film, which it does well, then we'd have a film on our hands. Instead we're left with a two-hour feature in which the restless audience will be screaming in distress than fear.
With the promotions it is apparent that the second part exists because Sunny Leone exists. Director Bhushan Patel and writers Suhani Kanwar and Tanweer Bookwala know that the men will come to the theatre to not get spooked at the sight of Sunny Leone, who plays herself in the film, but for other pleasures. So there are ample scenes in which the porn actress walks in panties and cleavage-exposing tops across the darkly lit corridors of the haunted house.
Here's the so-called story. Rocks (Parvin Dabas) is a director who wants to stage the story of Ragini and Uday for celluloid; he is shooting at the same house where the MMS clip was shot. He has roped in Sunny Leone to get the "Rrrr back in Ragini" (his words not ours) and a failed, brooding novelist, Satya (Saahil Prem), to write the screenplay. Judging by the goings-on, we think neither he nor the film's writers have done their job. And yes, Sunny wants to be taken seriously as an actress and goes to meet Ragini at a mental asylum. Let's just say things don't go too well. There's also a New York-returned psychiatrist (Divya Dutta), who seems more like an investigator. The rest as they say is a dull history lesson.
Ragini MMS 2 borrows generously from last year's hit, The Conjuring, which Indian audiences loved so much that it ran for almost a month in theatres. So it doesn't take long to figure that the back story, which reveals why the Chaytkeen (witch) is on a killing spree, and the climax are hardly original. One doesn't go to see a horror film to laugh but Ragini MMS 2 has few moments when it is doesn't take itself too seriously and has a handful of memorable one-liners. But we aren't certain about the accessibility of the humour which takes a jibe at the desperate ways of the strugglers in Lokhandwala and the TV stars.
Of the cast, Karan Mehra (better known as Naren of Pavitra Rishta) and Sandhya Mridul succeed in providing the desperately needed comic relief as two overenthusiastic, OTT actors in the film's crew. Even Dabas enjoys hamming as the director, but his is a more limited part. Sunny Leone isn't pushed out of her comfort zone and is more than content playing the stereotype. Our suggestion: watch the first half of Ragini MMS or get hold of The Conjuring. These films accomplish in doing what Ragini MMS 2 fails to.
Ragini MMS 2
Director: Bhushan Patel.
Cast: Sunny Leone, Parvin Dabas, Sandhya Mridul, Divya Dutta, Karan Mehra.
Rating:
For a film which is billing itself as India's first horrex (horror and sex) genre film, Ragini MMS 2 is hardly a spine-chilling tale. Ironically, the sequel to the 2011 film, which had genuine scream-inducing scenes, works better at tickling the funny bone. If the film continued to be a parody of the making of a horror film, which it does well, then we'd have a film on our hands. Instead we're left with a two-hour feature in which the restless audience will be screaming in distress than fear.
With the promotions it is apparent that the second part exists because Sunny Leone exists. Director Bhushan Patel and writers Suhani Kanwar and Tanweer Bookwala know that the men will come to the theatre to not get spooked at the sight of Sunny Leone, who plays herself in the film, but for other pleasures. So there are ample scenes in which the porn actress walks in panties and cleavage-exposing tops across the darkly lit corridors of the haunted house.
Here's the so-called story. Rocks (Parvin Dabas) is a director who wants to stage the story of Ragini and Uday for celluloid; he is shooting at the same house where the MMS clip was shot. He has roped in Sunny Leone to get the "Rrrr back in Ragini" (his words not ours) and a failed, brooding novelist, Satya (Saahil Prem), to write the screenplay. Judging by the goings-on, we think neither he nor the film's writers have done their job. And yes, Sunny wants to be taken seriously as an actress and goes to meet Ragini at a mental asylum. Let's just say things don't go too well. There's also a New York-returned psychiatrist (Divya Dutta), who seems more like an investigator. The rest as they say is a dull history lesson.
Ragini MMS 2 borrows generously from last year's hit, The Conjuring, which Indian audiences loved so much that it ran for almost a month in theatres. So it doesn't take long to figure that the back story, which reveals why the Chaytkeen (witch) is on a killing spree, and the climax are hardly original. One doesn't go to see a horror film to laugh but Ragini MMS 2 has few moments when it is doesn't take itself too seriously and has a handful of memorable one-liners. But we aren't certain about the accessibility of the humour which takes a jibe at the desperate ways of the strugglers in Lokhandwala and the TV stars.
Of the cast, Karan Mehra (better known as Naren of Pavitra Rishta) and Sandhya Mridul succeed in providing the desperately needed comic relief as two overenthusiastic, OTT actors in the film's crew. Even Dabas enjoys hamming as the director, but his is a more limited part. Sunny Leone isn't pushed out of her comfort zone and is more than content playing the stereotype. Our suggestion: watch the first half of Ragini MMS or get hold of The Conjuring. These films accomplish in doing what Ragini MMS 2 fails to.
source: Indiatoday.in
No comments:
Post a Comment