Ragini MMS

"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.

So, after a loooooooooong time, I came out of the theater impressed, entertained and committed to buy the DVD. Ragini MMS thrilled the hell out of me at every junction of its Paranormal Activity-type film-making.

The lead actors are perfect but I don't think they go parallel to what I hear where the true events. The girl is voluptuous, bigdi-baap-ki- bigdi- beti and gullible whereas the guy is a prick! The story is straight and tells us what it intends.

Music is good, so is the direction and the effects. But, the editing and camera work could've been a little more professional. Cut that out, I totally enjoyed the 90 minute-scare!

This is a must watch and very recommendable. I hear Sunny Leone is the lead in its sequel. Although I don;t know the story, I guess she will be all right as the character Ragini because she's got what Kainaz has. Where is the pre-book counter?

WATCH OUT FOR: the message!

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? NO

Language: Strong | Sex: Mild | Implied Sex: Very Strong | Foreplay: Very Strong | Mouth-Kiss: Very Strong | Alcohol: Strong | Smoking: No | Violence: Strong | Gore: Very Strong | Drugs: No

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.

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

Brings back memories of dirty weekends, for sure :-) At least that part of the movie seems authentic enough. The protagonists rock for their natural performances. The connection with MMS scandals (net blogs are full of such scandals), isolated farmhouses, spoilt brats on overdose of hormones and sleazy film-makers are genuine. The MNS chudail (ghoul) becomes repetitive, but is scary at times. In short, not a bad deal.

What jars are some of the horror sequences, the director's sudden realization that horror movies should have horrifying effects - and hence a surfeit of effects (sound and visual) at the end. The jarring music jars, and the movie ends, presumably to be continued in a sequel, which will explain some of the loose ends of the prequel. Good marketing strategy.

The house of Balaji Telefilms is not known for quality productions, whether for TV or for cinema. So it is useless to expect a Spielberg or Stephen King masterpiece here. The heroine is top-heavy and sensuous enough.. the hero is sufficiently rough and rugged. Both play their respective roles with aplomb.

If you take the proceedings with a pinch of salt, the movie is not a bad deal. I voted 6/10.