Darna Mana Hai

It is a wonderment that a movie of this stature could be made in Bollywood!!! Kudos to Ramgopal Varma and The First Time Director Prawaal Raman. The Movie is totally bizarre and hence very engaging. The Premise of Six friends telling each other stories on a dark, wintry night at lonely spot, the stories that follow, all keep our attention riveted. The stories range from the horrifying to unbelievable. All of the cast have given a wonderful performance. the ones that deserve special mention are Boman Irani, Saif Ali Khan, Nana Patekar, Shilpa Shetty, Raghuvir Yadav and Vivek Oberoi. One remains involved with the happenings mainly due to taut direction, background music and absence of songs(thank the director for that for that). The flow and the pace is fast and smooth. The climax needed more explanation. Thats IT!!! NOW go and watch the movie!!! It is definitely worth your time and money!!

Now this was a true classic movie from Bollywood standards. I've had mix reactions about Ram Gopal Verma so far. Some of his classics include: Raat, Rangeela, and Road, whereas his major disappointments include Vaastu Shastra and Bhoot (foolish endings). However, "Darna Mana Hai" is a true classic! No songs, no wasting time. This is pure "edge of the seat" psycho thriller. Everyone played a great part from unknown people to Vivek, Nana, Saif and others. Antra mali played a good cameo in the first story that the group shares. Shilpa shetty and sanjay kapoor filled in pretty well as well. The Nana Patekar-Vivek Oberoi encounter was a true classic!!!!!!!!!! I would rate it as undoubtedly the best horror movie from Bollywood. 5/5

"Darna Mana Hai" comes as a refreshing change in the genre of thrillers. It shows how a horror flick can thrill without being gross. There is little show of blood and gore and thrills the viewer with twists in the tale. Ram Gopal Varma proves himself again as a producer who dares to try something different in each of his movies. This is the second in this series of thrillers following "Bhoot". He has promised to follow this up with a sequel called "Darna Zaroori Hai"!

The film starts with a set of seven friends on their way to Goa when their car breaks down in a desolate part of a jungle. They take refuge in a shelter and to pass the time, start telling each other scary tales. As each one of them gets scared and returns to their car, they get killed. The friends get entangled in a tale of their own. Who the killer is and how the tale of tales ends makes up the rest of the story. The movie is fast paced and leaves the viewers breathless though the ending could have probably been made a bit differently.

Each of the stories stars a plethora of bollywood heroes and heroines. Raghuvir Yadav, Vivek Oberio, Saif Ali Khan, Sohail Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Nana Patekar are just a few of them. Boman Irani and Raghuvir Yadav excel in their roles. Nana Patekar is his usual emotionless self. Vivek Oberios is a star now, what with his apperance on screen setting off hooting and whistles in the theatre.

This novel idea of narration deserves appreciation. I would give it 7/10 for the novel concept and treatment.

Bollywood tries something never before seen in a Hindi film. A horror film about people telling ghost stories to each other. The main plot of the film is predictable and a little boring. The six stories have some good parts. Story One was pretty exciting towards the end only with Sohail Khan. Story Two is one of the Best and has dark humour added, with Saif Ali Khan and Boman Irani in powerful roles. Story Three is the boring one out of the lot about a teacher. Story Four was a bit stupid but good in some parts, with Shilpa Shetty. Story Five is the Best out of he lot, with Vivek who offers a hitch hiker Nana Patekar a lift. Nana claims to be a ghost, which leads to a amazing twist. Story Six is quite Fun, less horror about a boy who can STOP time. This is Far better then the sequel Darna Zaroori Hai. A good attempt in something different. Not Bad, quite entertaining.

It's like reading a book of short stories from Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, or anyone like them. 6 stories bring to you the unimaginable, the unbelievable, something between fantasy and thriller. We learn about the consequences of bad choices we make in life and they are funny at times, and shocking as well. An earlier comment mentioned that the stories are weird, but that doesn't matter, it makes the movie well worth watching!!! The only minus in it all, is the reason we get for what is happening to our 7 friends who tell us their stories. That is indeed quite weird, but maybe YOU and I didn't even notice.....someone is missing at the end of the movie.......