PROTÉGÉS EXCEL OVER MENTOR
By P Shukla - Eye TV India Bureau
Critic's I-view
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Fear is the most attractive feeling in a human being ; the more mysterious it gets, the more attractive it becomes. And, this feeling has been explored on big screen, since the days of 'Mahal' when director Kamal Amrohi decided to give viewers a jolt of sort by portraying narcissist Madhubala in a mysterious role. On her target was none other than superstar of that time Ashok Kumar. The film was a huge hit and it also started the trend of haunting numbers in these kinds of films.
'Madhumati', 'Woh Kaun Thi' and 'Mera Saya' followed in the same genre until Ramsay brothers entered the scenario when the people started seeing ugly ghosts on screen. If Ramsays made horror genre only to be classified as B or C grade films, then it was Ram Gopal Verma who took great challenge by making film after film from 'Raat' to 'Kaun' to 'Bhoot' and 'Vaashtushashtra' and 'Darna Mana Hai'. It was because of him that once again this genre is being seen as a respectable venture and even the mega stars agree to work in a horror film.
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Ram Gopal Varma's latest offering 'Darna Zaroori Hai' is a class apart in many ways. It is the first film in Hindi cinema that has been made by its maker only to prove that his idea (that failed in 'Darna Mana Hai') is not absurd. What was wrong in its making? Verma is also experimenting with one of his flops titled 'James', by remaking it as 'Shiva'). In 'Darna Zaroori Hai', Verma once again weaves six different stories and this time finds a group of kids instead of teenagers in its prequel to tread on the narration.
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It is also for the first time that a filmmaker ridicules his own past film in the new one. 'Darna Zaroori Hai' starts with a viewer (Manoj Pahwa) laughing at 'Darna Mana Hai' and inquiring from the theatre the address of Ram Gopal Verma to claim the ticket money back. The viewer crosses a graveyard to return home and dies of a shock after seeing the poster of 'Darna Zaroori Hai'. A novel concept to start the film and every one in the hall is impressed. Cut to a titillating song by Nisha Kothari where she teases you to invite her right there.
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The credits end and there is the biggest supers star of Hindi cinema, Amitabh Bachchan. He is a professor of molecular biotechnology. He is frightened of some one's presence in his home. He can see him but his student (Ritesh Deshmukh) cannot. He makes his student see the ghost in mirror (another myth breaking, normally ghosts are invisible in mirrors in cinema). The story one ends, resulting in the audience not getting impressed. The bells ring at a remote house on the highway . The landlady (Bipasha Basu) opens the gate; the help-seeker (Arjun Rampal) wants to make a call, as his car has broken down.
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The lady and her husband (Makrand Deshpande) play game with him pretending to be ghosts - one by one. The guest gets angry. Then, the husband and the wife want to see how the souls are called. Someone knocks at the door ; he calls the couple to tell that a car has met with an accident in front of their house, killing the driver. The couple comes out; on the driver's seat is the help seeker, dead. Impressive. Interval.
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The second part of the film is about the tale of other three stories ; one involving Rajpal Yadav, Suniel Shetty and Sonali Kulkarni, another with Anil Kapoor and Mallika Shehrawat and the last one with Randeep Hooda and others. The film's clutch loosens in the first two stories post-interval, but the last one again is quite impressive. The sixth story keeps unfolding during the narration of these stories by an old lady to small kids as they die one by one. The net result is that Ram Gopal Verma and his team get three out of six. You can call it pass marks to get promoted to the next level. However, from Ram Gopal Verma standard it is not done. He must at least get five out of six.
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If Ram Gopal Verma made 'Darna Zaroori Hai' only to teach filmmaking to his protégés, the idea is not bad. But repeating the same style of horror loses its value. Manoj Pahwa and Anil Kapoor die in the film in almost the same situation. Amitabh Bachchan and Ritesh's is the opening sequence of narration, but it fails to send shivers in the spine (Amitabh Bachchan's first outing in horror genre -'Hum Kaun Hai' too failed miserably). Arjun Rampal, Bipasha and Makrand made a good team to create suspense, thrill and mystery with a doze of eroticism on the screen and the sequence is the best in the film. Randip Hooda does very good acting towards the end and leaves everyone in the hall perplexed . He is well supported by Zakir Hussain and Rasika Joshi.
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Though the film is high on technical grounds, it lacks the consistency. Amar Mohile has tried to match Salim Sulaiman in creating very good background music. Among directors of the different stories only Prawal Rama and Chakravarthy emerge winner (directing Bipasha and Hooda tracks, respectively), but thier mentor Ram Gopal Verma who directs Big B and Ritesh track, fails miserably. On the whole, 'Darna Zaroori Hai' is a film, which can be seen as a pass time. It scares you in parts but fails to live up to its name 'Darna Zaroori Hai'.
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