Horror - A genre very less travelled by mainstream Bollywood cinema. I always wonder why. Cause I love the genre very much. I love the way the sound can raise your hair. Give you goosebumps or even sleepless nights and discomfort in darkness. Simple, I love to get horrified !! So I never ever miss a chance whenever a horror movie is up in cinema hall. So despite the bad reviews, I went for Ram Gopal Verma's latest misadventure "Agyaat : The Unknown". And surprisingly, at the end, though I was un-satisfied, still felt entertained. This is not a brilliant movie making but could have been. If given proper focus on totality of the movie. Still there are few moments that make this one a watch if you are free this weekend, doing nothing and having a 1:40 hours free time to pass around. Give this one a shot. But yes, mind it, ''don't'' expect cinematic excellence. That thing I will never ask from Ramu, now on. Yes Yes :
1. Sound Design : Its just so perfect. So realistic that you can feel the jungle around you. And more surprising is, you never 'see' the unknown creature. Still you can feel it everywhere.
2. Characterizations : Very well defined. One can easily relate to the bunch of crew who came to shoot a movie in jungle. Cameraman, action director, AD and even hilarious 'Jai Matadi' spot boy - all are very good. 'The Hero' s character started off quite well, but towards the end, it was stretched out.
3. Cinematography : Jungles of SriLanka are shot very well. Scary and breathtaking at times. And it is also perfect with river running through it. Perfect place to shoot horror.
4. Shock and Aw factor : Thrilling moments actually thrills you. But quantity wise its quite less.
No..oh No.. :
1. Acting Dept : The lead actors. Nitin Reddy and Priyanka [Nisha] Kothari are weakest links. Fardeen and Urmila were best in similar role of "Jungle". Didn't Ramu had DVD of that, to show this newbies?
2. Screenplay : Very poor. This is the most critical area for a horror movie, where this movie fails. And becomes a predictable watch.
3. Slow start up : Continuing the screenplay problem, the starting of the movie takes such a long time to establish the story. Which would be better if shortened, and action started from first 20 minutes.
4. Dialogues : In the movie, a character who plays 'hero' -a movie star- also tries his hands at writing dialogues. And I think, Ramu has selected him in real too. Very very bad dialogues are there. See this sample :
Girl : '..but we can't live in water forever...' [oh thank you ma'm, otherwise we would never know that:P]
Boy : 'Yes, we have to swim this river to get to next shore' [ahh...thanks hero ji..otherwise we were in great suspense how can you get outta that river!!]
5. Item songs : Bad bad bad...so bad. Ramu ji, please call your loyal Sandeep Chowtha back. And why 2 songs are added in such a short movie? That too in a horror flick? Total Hathoda songs....
My Rating : 2 / 5
Fav. Scenes : The 'Khooni Panja' moment, Campfire scene [a rip-off from LOST]
Re-watch : Oh no, not at all. But yes, will surely watch Agyaat 2.
Thanks for your entertaining and dil se review, as always. That's interesting that you would go for Agyaat 2. And wasn't Nisha Kothari in RGV Ki Aag? He *still* went with her? That's Ramu at work, I guess.
ReplyDeleteThe horror genre is not for me, I think I was telling Bhargav around the release of Raaz 2 that I was proud of sitting through Kaal (2005) on my own and in a rural setting. Needless to say, almost everyone who knows the genre thinks Kaal was a joke and not really scary, LOL. So...anyway, kudos to all of you guys for going to the *theater* to see it!
I love horror films too but Agyaat really was a frustrating experience. Terrible is an understatement. RGV has totally lost it...the film is not only unoriginal but also pathetically scripted. I can't call this a film actually..it didn't feel like one.
ReplyDeleteI have a confession: even crap horror scares the dickens out of me. I can't sit through it for one moment. I loved your take on the dialogue though! LOL
ReplyDeleteExcept those 2-3 moments in the muvee, rest of it was "Aiyoda...kya bekar muvee ji.."
ReplyDelete2/5 - I think you are being kind! I can see your points on the jungle - at least if the acting, the script, the direction is bad, there's at least the location. Also, lol, on your dialogue analysis. I think there should be a whole movie where the actors say nothing but the obvious, but then that would probably be considered a comedy.
ReplyDeleteWoooops !!! FIVE comments!! I didn't expected this would happen to 'AGyaat' review :P :D
ReplyDeletetheBollywoodFan
Thanks buddy. Well, what more can I say but, That's me. I would go for part 2 cause hardly there are much thriller/horror are getting released in India. Be it Holly or Bolly movie. LoL to Nisha ooops Priyanka Kothari. I think RGV is losing his taste now. Antara Mali tak toh sab theek tha, but this girl is pure failure.
About Kaal, I actually liked that movie. May be just because I had not seen Predator then, or first time on big screen I was watching such movie. And I had crush on Lara back then :D hehe.
Bhargav
As I commented on your review, it seems you are now exhausted by quality of movies 2009 is churning out. Well, lets hope there is a silver lining in this cloud somewhere. [I still doubt, if 2009 will deliver though]
ajnabi
Haha. Nice one. Same is with me. Even as a child, I used to see Purana Mandir and Haveli kinda movies by Ramsay Bros. and felt scared as hell. But yes, I like being scared and love to get goosebumps :D Oh, and the dialogues were pathetic. Thank God, there was some good background score to hide it.
Nishit Joshi
Hehe, that producer 'aiyoda' was annoying I know. But those some moments were survivor for me :) to come out. So was the movie's lenght did great favor. Otherwise like Drona, I would have felt tied to chair to see the movie getting completed.
shell
Kind?? Humm...I think RGV needs it. Poor little fellow, otherwise he would come on road with hoardings about 'PETd' : Ppl for ethical treatment to Directors :D
Actually Rajeev Masand has also given it 2 stars. And similar reasons. Oh, and movie without dialogues?? Anytime, but please, not RGV's production. Otherwise we will end up seeing closeups of faces. Nothing else.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
ReplyDeleteV.K Gupta
http://review-of-movies.blogspot.com
V K Gupta
ReplyDeleteHello, welcome to my blog. Thanks for your kind words, Its complement for me :) Sure, i will keep updating as frequently as possible. Thanks for link to your blog too. Will be heading over it soon.
Hmm I was wondering if I shd watch it because I genuinely liked Bhoot but Nisha Kothari ne mujhe dara diya ;-D
ReplyDeleteLOL Pitu. Issi liye toh main bola, ki muje darna pasand hai :D
ReplyDelete