Darr @ the Mall

Director tried to Present in different way, good improvisation, Its not like a traditional Indian horror movie, well organized. All the actors performed really well, especially "Jimmy". After interval, it started feeling bore but at the end it holds it rhythm again. Director tried to put scary scene in regular interval, sometimes it work, sometimes it doesn't. Ghosts are not traditional faces, which really makes me interest in this film. Finally I would say its screenplay or storyline is not so strong but presented nicely, all performed well, had to wait till end to know the real fact and not follow the traditional horror theme. That's the beauty of the film.

Indeed, a good movie to watch.

Characters are perfect, Jimmy steal the show. Asif Basra has grown from vendor on Ratlam station in Jab we met and giving good performances now, nusrat is good.

But every character played a good role in movie, we can say there is no loop holes in the movie. Indeed the movie has many scary scenes, few are taken from Conjuring (like guy on the cupboard).

It shocks you every now and then with the special effects, also the main ghost is very strong in posture.

One of the scene at the end where director showing past of what happened when all children got burned is created with great special effects, and can give you goosebumps.

Over all good effort from director and definitely a one time watch in theater.

This movie was the worst of the lot I have scene in recent times. The story line, screen play, acting (barring Jimmy), songs, editing all are sub-standard quality work and deserves lot of improvement in all departments. The story-line is weak from the beginning and unconvincing. I was not able to understand why an actor like Jimmy accepted this kind of movie, his talent was totally under-utilized. The story-line was like a bumpy ride with scenes thrown in with the hope that viewers are fools and will appreciate this kind of worthless movie. I will strongly suggest avoiding this movie and save your precious time and spend money on flicks which are truly deserving. I wish I could do the same for this one too (somehow got misguided by previous reviews).

The USP of every horror movie is its ability to spook or scare its audience out of their wits. The primary reason a horror movie fan walks into a theater is to get frightened and its the only thing which is expected from such films.

Sadly, Darr@Mall fails on this count, scare you is the last thing it does. The attempt is very amateurish and is presented like a high school stage play.

Amity Mall (a take off on the Amityville horror series) is a mall somewhere in India where spooky happenings and mysterious deaths surround the place, threatening to close it down. The owners decide to sell it after an event which they plan in order to extnguish everyone's fear in the mall.

The event goes uneventfully, but soon after 5 people get trapped in the mall and get killed one by one by more than a single spook who have an agenda of their own and have a soft corner for the lead actor Jimmy Shergill which is revealed in "oh really?" type of flashback in the end, which is so clear that you would be pretty stupid not to have noticed the connection right from the beginning.

The best part is an firang item girl who speaks heavy accented Hindi but surprisingly sings in very good Hindi (maybe some of the ghosts might have possessed her). But to give credit, she is the only one who does justice to her character, she is expected to look hot and she was good at that.

But it does have all other ingredients in place, you have a dumb heroine, a survivor hero, a mediocre Villain, a hot item girl and false scares.

The music is bad, the screenplay is dumb, the direction is awful and the acting is third rate.

You want to get scared, go and watch the reruns of the Ramsay Movies or better still watch the Zee horror show on you tube.

Looking at the decent number of people coming in to watch this not so big or hugely publicized venture, it was pretty clear that Indian audience are still ready and waiting for a good, enjoyable Hindi horror film as always. But unfortunately our film-makers are visibly struggling to crack this particular genre from quite long and that is the reason why a film like THE CONJURING (2013) enjoys a great run at the multiplexes of the cities, whereas our own Hindi horror movies fail to generate a similar kind of impact at the box office.

To put it straight, either we are too much influenced from what is being made in the west in this specific field (like the mall is named AMITY MALL here) or not ready to try something fresh fearing an outright rejection. In fact this is what can clearly be seen inDARR @ THE MALL too which begins in a very fine way with a fresh approach and an interesting background score promising the most desired welcome change.

But then just after the first 30 minutes, it again starts falling back to the same routine, seen before inspired stuff as witnessed in films such as GRAVE ENCOUNTERS (2011). Interestingly last year we had HORROR STORY taking it mostly from this experimental foreign flick and this year we have DARR @ THE MALL again based on a similar theme with only the venues changed. For instance, the abandoned hospital (or Hotel) turns into an abandoned shopping mall and the mental hospital of the flashback turns into an orphanage here to give it a different feel. So everyone getting locked into the haunted building concept remains the same and the only saving grace is its interesting culmination wherein the dark secret at least gives the viewer a few engaging moments, served in too late.

With an apt duration of just 2 hours, the film starts becoming monotonous towards the mid and then turns completely predictable with the revenge angle thrown in quite expectedly. Jimmy Sheirgill simply does this film like another of his side project but also remains strictly professional in his given character too as required. Nushrat Bharucha seems uninterested throughout and Arif Zakaria plays it well as the mall owner. However the other actors and youngsters do not get much to do in the film due to their short roles. The soundtrack is pretty average and the narration leaves few major questions unanswered in the end mainly about the character of Jimmy. Plus a purely forced in sequence of the foreign dancer is just there to get some steamy scenes on the screen and nothing else.

In short, considering the way it begins with a smart opening and an impressive background score, director Pawan Kirpalani might be able to crack the horror code in one of his coming venture for sure. But with DARR @ THE MALL he has simply missed the mark and the opportunity given.