Darna Mana Hai Cast: Varmas usual suspects Direction: Prawaal Raman Rating: *** Guys-n-gals driving to Goa go, Kya yaar! What yaar! No yaar! Yes yaar as if nimboo achaar were stuck in their gullets. Or they make much do-dah about munching a saand-witch. Glitch. Truly the Goa-a-go-go gang is into some sort of nutzoid shebang. And then their car gets stuck close to the Fillum City jungle. Bungle. So heres debutant director Prawaal Ramans Darna Mana Hai, a criss cross between a horror TV serial and an oof-what-a-spoof (unintentional albeit) of the blood-curdling genre. More than enticing shivers-up-the-spinal-chord, this darna biz extracts guffaws, titters and giggle-gaggles simply because its so darn kinky, absurd, smart-assed and yup, also plain silly-billy. In fact, Raman seems like a film school pre-graduate on a funky head trip. The fix is provided by the eggstra prolific guru-cum-producer Ram Gopal Varma who nowadays can toss up a movie even adapted from a recipe on how to cook tomato omelettes. Burp. Wait a minute though. If its all so cracked then whatre the three stars doing glittering up there? Well, at the very least, this purrroject is conceptually daring, caring a whit for the formulaic conventions like bong-bong songs, cabarets galore and the boy-mates-girl ragmaroles. Also the six rather disconnected stories narrated out here, do yield a couple of tale twisters in the tradition of the Twilight Zone tele-series, the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes, Scream and hey, even the small-budget classic Blairwitch Project. Quite clearly, Raman and his three writers including the often punctured Abbas Tyrewalla are on one helluva crazy ride. The most hilarious halt turns out to be the Goodhealth hotel, a take-off on Norman Bates eerie motel in ole Alfie Hitchcocks classic Psycho. Check out the hotels Snarlboro caretaker (Boman Irani, superb) whos the most stringent advocate of the non-smoking zone. If youre addicted to the weed, youre khallas. A slick chic photographer (Saif Ali Khan, ultra-kool) would rather fight then quit. Indeed, the combat between the puffer and the anti-cigarette crusader is insanely zany. Wow. The other absorbing story concerns a shifty schoolteacher (Raghuvir Yadav, expertly in character) whos rattled by the sudden efficiency of a normally slack student in completing her Om-work. She scrawls Om on the pages just like the teachers childhood friend did years ago. As repressed guilt pangs surface, the teachers ready to be confined to a loony bin. Revathy, photographed in rather ungainly close-ups, shows up as the diabolical childs flummoxed mum. Cleverly moralistic-n-mad, this one. The other stories just dont compare. The piffle about an overcosmeticised housewife (Shilpa Shetty in a kaftan) hallucinating on apples is childishly Salvador Daliesque. The stuff about a brand-new husband (Sohail Khan) spooking his wife (Antara Mali sulking away majorly ) is tiresomely tame. Next: Nana Patekar trying to haunt a smarmy Vivek Oberoi just about passes muster. Last but also the least, the bagatelle about the campus weakling (Aftab Shivdasani) acquiring magical powers to hook the college item (Isha Koppikar, natch) is unredeemingly ridiculous. Where does this leave the Goa-ho gang narrating the stories by a logfire? Well, acres of footage are unnecessarily expended on the muscular-n-aggressive Sameera Reddy as well as her sidey cohorts whore grabbed-n-stabbed till they become pools of tabasco sauce. Sorry, the disparate stories just dont mesh, never mind some mumbo-jumbo about how all those whore afflicted by FEAR are better off dead. Uh, whats being said here? Where are Varma and Co coming from? The Wacko Kabrastan? Vis-a-vis the jolting sound design (not a patch on Bhoot), the gimmicky camerawork, the editing (for heavens sake, ban those distracting effects like schoolkids moving as if they were on LSD) and the background music score (dipping into Peter Gabriels Last Temptation of Christ), these are more than likely to be mistaken for techno-slickness. If this Varma product is a distinct cut above the average its because of the Boman Irani-Saif Ali Khan episode, the remarkably venturesome-n-unconventional spirit of the enterprise. And finally, because its certainly far more sittable than Qayamat, Jaal the Trap, Hawa, Main Prem ki Deewani Hoon and other such recent brain blasters. ***** Excellent **** Very Good *** Good ** Average * Poor Oof~ here's a spoof
Date: 2003-7-27
Darna Mana Hai Cast: Varmas usual suspects Direction: Prawaal Raman Rating: *** Guys-n-gals driving to Goa go, Kya yaar! What yaar! No yaar! Yes yaar as if nimboo achaar were stuck in their gullets. Or they make much do-dah about munching a saand-witch. Glitch. Truly the Goa-a-go-go gang is into some sort of nutzoid shebang. And then their car gets stuck close to the Fillum City jungle. Bungle. So heres debutant director Prawaal Ramans Darna Mana Hai, a criss cross between a horror TV serial and an oof-what-a-spoof (unintentional albeit) of the blood-curdling genre. More than enticing shivers-up-the-spinal-chord, this darna biz extracts guffaws, titters and giggle-gaggles simply because its so darn kinky, absurd, smart-assed and yup, also plain silly-billy. In fact, Raman seems like a film school pre-graduate on a funky head trip. The fix is provided by the eggstra prolific guru-cum-producer Ram Gopal Varma who nowadays can toss up a movie even adapted from a recipe on how to cook tomato omelettes. Burp. Wait a minute though. If its all so cracked then whatre the three stars doing glittering up there? Well, at the very least, this purrroject is conceptually daring, caring a whit for the formulaic conventions like bong-bong songs, cabarets galore and the boy-mates-girl ragmaroles. Also the six rather disconnected stories narrated out here, do yield a couple of tale twisters in the tradition of the Twilight Zone tele-series, the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes, Scream and hey, even the small-budget classic Blairwitch Project. Quite clearly, Raman and his three writers including the often punctured Abbas Tyrewalla are on one helluva crazy ride. The most hilarious halt turns out to be the Goodhealth hotel, a take-off on Norman Bates eerie motel in ole Alfie Hitchcocks classic Psycho. Check out the hotels Snarlboro caretaker (Boman Irani, superb) whos the most stringent advocate of the non-smoking zone. If youre addicted to the weed, youre khallas. A slick chic photographer (Saif Ali Khan, ultra-kool) would rather fight then quit. Indeed, the combat between the puffer and the anti-cigarette crusader is insanely zany. Wow. The other absorbing story concerns a shifty schoolteacher (Raghuvir Yadav, expertly in character) whos rattled by the sudden efficiency of a normally slack student in completing her Om-work. She scrawls Om on the pages just like the teachers childhood friend did years ago. As repressed guilt pangs surface, the teachers ready to be confined to a loony bin. Revathy, photographed in rather ungainly close-ups, shows up as the diabolical childs flummoxed mum. Cleverly moralistic-n-mad, this one. The other stories just dont compare. The piffle about an overcosmeticised housewife (Shilpa Shetty in a kaftan) hallucinating on apples is childishly Salvador Daliesque. The stuff about a brand-new husband (Sohail Khan) spooking his wife (Antara Mali sulking away majorly ) is tiresomely tame. Next: Nana Patekar trying to haunt a smarmy Vivek Oberoi just about passes muster. Last but also the least, the bagatelle about the campus weakling (Aftab Shivdasani) acquiring magical powers to hook the college item (Isha Koppikar, natch) is unredeemingly ridiculous. Where does this leave the Goa-ho gang narrating the stories by a logfire? Well, acres of footage are unnecessarily expended on the muscular-n-aggressive Sameera Reddy as well as her sidey cohorts whore grabbed-n-stabbed till they become pools of tabasco sauce. Sorry, the disparate stories just dont mesh, never mind some mumbo-jumbo about how all those whore afflicted by FEAR are better off dead. Uh, whats being said here? Where are Varma and Co coming from? The Wacko Kabrastan? Vis-a-vis the jolting sound design (not a patch on Bhoot), the gimmicky camerawork, the editing (for heavens sake, ban those distracting effects like schoolkids moving as if they were on LSD) and the background music score (dipping into Peter Gabriels Last Temptation of Christ), these are more than likely to be mistaken for techno-slickness. If this Varma product is a distinct cut above the average its because of the Boman Irani-Saif Ali Khan episode, the remarkably venturesome-n-unconventional spirit of the enterprise. And finally, because its certainly far more sittable than Qayamat, Jaal the Trap, Hawa, Main Prem ki Deewani Hoon and other such recent brain blasters. ***** Excellent **** Very Good *** Good ** Average * Poor
