Ragini MMS

Although not as impressive as the 'Blair Witch Project' or 'Paranormal Activity' (most of the horror elements have been borrowed from these movies), Ragini MMS still delivers 90 minutes of entertainment. The sexual theme will keep the viewer mildly amused at the beginning and then gradually introduce the scares of the movie. The CGI will not leave you stunned but you definitely won't take your eyes off the screen. Good performances by both the stars and decent direction. This popcorn-flick could have been done much better. Don't watch this movie if you want to be on the edge of you seat because this movie is a little off that mark but it does give a good competition to the rest of the horror flicks in Hindi cinema. Might scare you or may make you hysterical but it will be fun nonetheless.

Enjoy it in the dark.

6/10

"Ragini MMS" made on a shoe-string budget coupled with the efforts of PR machinery to manufacture topics at regular intervals leading to talk of the town, and eventually resulting in a steep ROI curve.

Fans of "Blair Witch Project" & "Paranomal Activity" would certainly not be impressed with a plot that has been tweaked to incorporate the voyeuristic element of MMS/ Big Boss thereby nearly missing being stamped as a plagiarised product.

The script matches up nicely with the characters. The lead actors Kainaz & Raj Kumar I am sure would get noticed for their convincing and inhibited performance. Undoubtedly Rajkumar is a scene-stealer, you will instantly connect this sleazy "t**** master". The two "fly-in-the- ointment" to the dirty weekend characters could have been done away with.

The scares and chills are not impressive. Or probably the Big Boss format forces constraints to deliver the punch. The screenplay is good though dips for a while in the second half. Technically the product is brilliant. Pawan Kriplani shows immense promise holding directorial reigns. Sadly the sum of parts don't measure up to the whole.

As an out of the routine review of this latest inspired project from a reputed production house, I would like to proceed giving you an idea of how RAGINI MMS may have been conceived a few months back.

A Queen producer of the small screen after moving into film production, tastes a marginal success in one of her low budget projects, called LSD – LOVE SEX AUR DHOKHA, majorly shot on hand held camera. Taking an idea from that, she thinks of making another movie on the similar lines to be made in a few months time. Now, while her team is looking out for a plot to be selected, someone informs them about an Instant Hit movie in the West made on a shoe string budget with a horror plot called "PARANAORMAL ACTIVITY". The next day itself everyone watches it, selects it and decides to write a more Indianised Script around the same theme of a haunted house and hidden cameras.

But in a few days time, the team thinks that only horror element, without any other added gimmick as shown in the Original 'PA' may not work in India. So taking a hint from their last successful project LSD, the writers decide on to bring in some Romance, Sex and Vulgarity into it which will make it more sensational and a news-making item at the time of its release. As a result, a MMS scandal scoop is added into the film along with many long smooches and bed-room scenes to bring in more viewers into the theater. Further, as in India it might be tough to terrify the viewers without any visible spirit (like in the original 'PA'), hence a vaguely visible spirit is also added into the movie, who speaks in a strange tone and also kills all the people visiting the haunted house in a bloody Ramsay manner.

After having everything in place, while shooting the pre-climax sequences, both the director and the cinematographer suddenly remember another famous low budget HIT movie of the west called "THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" and get excited. So keeping the same film in mind they shoot the wandering in the woods (bamboo trees kind of forest) sequences in the end with the night vision hand held camera quite similar to as seen in TBWP.

OK, now the film is ready….and we need to promote it heavily. So with a clear marketing vision, a buzz is spread that the film is based on a real life incident faced by a girl called Ragini on whom the film is actually titled RAGINI MMS. And right before the release of the film, the girl actually comes into the news saying that this is not her story and she is being used by the producers. To make the buzz even more interesting, extremely vulgar posters are designed by the graphic designers to promote it along with the news of the film facing problems with the censors due to its unacceptable concept. And hence a perfect drama is staged to deliberately create another instant money-earner for the famous production house by fooling the audiences.

But unfortunately, this time the whole process goes in vain since the end product turns out to be pretty confused, vulgar, funny and spooky all together taking the viewer no-where in its small yet over lengthy duration of around 100 minutes. The film starts off smartly reminding you of the brilliant LSD and entertains you in its initial 20 minutes mainly because of its realistic abusive one liners. Later on though it manages to shake the viewer occasionally but on the whole, fails to give you a good entertaining time in the theater.

The first time director, Pavan Kirpalani has got the talent but loses the track mainly on his editing table and could have easily made an impact with a heavily edited version of the movie, of around only 80-85 minutes. He copies major things from the English Original, so cannot be credited with anything great. In a songless film, as it should be, the Background music is both designed and used perfectly as required by the theme. But the film mostly relies on its sexual stuff more than the horror one. In the first half it simply looks like a B grade sex movie desperately interested in exploiting the females on the screen. Raj Kumar Yadav of LSD fame, plays an extension of his precious role in LSD and he is even more cunning this time which in fact is impressive. Kainaz Motivala has a soothing presence and acts well.

However, many of the viewers who haven't seen either PARANORMAL ACTIVITY or THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT may like it to some extent. But for me, RAGINI MMS only remains a cheap kind of Indian imitation of the West, so I would rather suggest you to watch it's original if you really want to get spooked.

And here are the two things I learned about Bollywood from RAGINI MMS : 1. Firstly Bollywood can easily copy the concept of a film, but it still finds hard to stick to the concept alone and has to deliberately add SEX into it un-necessarily.

2. Secondly Bollywood still is not comfortable with a film having a duration of less than or around 90 minutes. So with its heavy obsession with the length of the movie, the writers and the directors are forced to add extra sequences into their project to make it around 2 hours.

And in both cases the victim remains the Project as well as its viewers.

Ragini MMS came and went away in a jiffy, and unfortunately couldn't make a ground for itself. I don't think it would be remembered in the next decade or might have been forgotten by now itself, who knows? The problem is, most of the Indians don't like when the ghosts show their gizmos in a ghastly style. So what's so special about this movie? The good thing is that it keeps the viewer's eye on the plot and holds his feet tightly to the ground. We must never forget that we are surrounded by these unknown entities, who are often enraged when their territory is intruded by humans. So don't look at the plot, the plot falters big time and what remains is the location, atmosphere and the fear of an unknown entity that may be very near to you, yet difficult to perceive. The plot promises itself to be a true story, where a girl was discovered unconscious after spending several days at a haunted house.

A young man Uday (Rajkumar) brings his girlfriend Ragini (Kainaz) at an abandoned and fairly spooky mansion. He wants to get intimate with her and holds a wicked intention to make an MMS of the moments of intimacy unbeknownst to the girl. For this he has made prior arrangements. He has planted several cameras in the room, which are away from sight but powerful enough to capture the moments of love. Uday is lousy and foul-mouthed, and bickers Ragini with his unholy and offending remarks. At the mansion, he spends time with Ragini, so as to persuade her to make love. However, his advances fail when their friends (another couple) drop in to say 'hi'. Frustrated, Uday insults them on their very face asking them to leave. They leave and Uday continues his advances to Ragini. Ragini finally discovers that she is a bait and reprimands Uday for his wicked motives. However, little do they know that the mansion is also the home to a witch, who was charged with the murders of her own children and died in the mansion itself. The witch doesn't like these trespassers and begins settling the scores by herself. Finally the couple finds that they are left on their own to fend off the enraged witch, who would not stay calm unless her wrath is inflicted upon.

There are some scenes that make you feel that you are on a trip to the country side and are spending a night or so in a haunted mansion. The mansion is a piece of hell, which by all means succeeds to qualify its virtue of being haunted and possessed. The actors are juvenile and have really nothing to do. They are more or less like guinea pigs who are simply the victims of witch. The real-time camera work adds good punch of surrealism and originality. The silhouette of witch in traditional Maharashtrian attire, gleaming in the semi-dark room assures and validates the presence of a fearful entity in the mansion. The turning of food into grubs also adds a distasteful crunch to the synopsis. If you are looking for an action-packed horror film (like most of the Ramsay hits), Ragini MMS isn't for you. However, if you are a fan of dark rooms, spooky atmosphere, state-of-the-art presentation, and bizarre involuntary reflexes, please don't miss this.

To begin with, I am a little disappointed with Ragini MMS in terms of originality. The film has a little resemblance with paranormal activity (as it was seen in movie trailer).However makers have added the Desi spices to the movie by some Indianized dialogues (or say abuses) and strong story and sub-plots.

The genre of the movie is a winner itself.The combination of sex and horror (which was used indirectly in Bhatt's movies is the stream line here). Intentions of the film makers are very clear here.Just two elements horror and sex, no melodrama or Bollywood masala.

Rajpal is very influential on screen.His screen presence and comic timing is bang on!Kainaz has improved a lot after her bubbly role in Wake Up Sid.Explicit scenes are done comfortably by the lead and their chemistry is extra ordinary.

Story is straight without any twists and turns.Screenplay is tight and tangling.Dialouges are surprisingly fresh,witty and sultry.The dialogues (and slang) gives a good flavor to the horror movie.

Background score is a mile stone for horror movies considering the fact that high pitched digital sound and scorching guitars are used for score in an Indian horror movie.

Minus some originality and faulty editing, the movie is the scariest date movie of India till date.