Dobaara: See Your Evil

Despite 100 years of Indian cinema horror is sadly one of the most overlooked genres in Bollywood with most films on offer consisting of whatever forgetful or ridiculous plot line the Bhatts (during the 70s and 80s it used to be the Ramsays who were associated with the genre) have cooked up that week. Prawaal Raman's Dobaara: See Your Evil, an official remake of Mike Flanagan's acclaimed Oculus, is not any better than those. Incidentally, the film is part of a three-picture deal between Relativity Media, B&U Television Network, and Balaji Telefilms, which also includes remakes of the films The Best Of Me and 3 Days To Kill along with Oculus.

Dobaara: See Your Evil is set in England and as the story goes Natasha Alex Merchant(Huma Qureshi) and Kabir Alex Merchant(Saqib Saleem ) are siblings who live a separated life due to a tragedy that has happened in the past. She recalls her childhood with her family with her father Alex Merchant (Adil Hussain) and her mother Lisa (Lisa Ray) and their pet Rambo. Things are hunky-dory till the father brings home a mirror which is said to be haunted. One fine day in a rage of fear, Adil shoots Lisa and in turn Saqib shoots Adil. Natasha strongly believes that it is the mirror which was responsible for all happenings. The brother-sister duo reunite after a decade to destroy the haunted mirror but the mirror is well prepared in advance and knows how to protect itself.

The film is ineptly executed and the purpose of making the film remains unfathomable. The film is set in England, and has not a single Indian reference point that connects it with our experiences. No social or cultural adaptation has been attempted.

Dobaara: See Your Evil does have an interesting first half however it is not at all scary as projected in the trailer. The performances by the lead actors make the film interesting however the film lacks engaging narration in some aspects. Some of the interesting episodes have been badly presented. One couldn't initially make out if Alex Merchant was possessed or schizophrenic. The post interval episodes convince you that the film is a psychological thriller.

The second half of the film too has been loosely executed and will leave the audience confused. Many of the interesting episodes have been clearly ignored and the major plot has been sidelined. The performances by the lead actors drive the film completely. The pre-climax events make the film interesting and the climax is completely predictable.

Writer-director Prawaal Raman fails to make Dobaara: See Your Evil into an interesting horror film as the film lacks scary content. In fact, Dobaara: See Your Evil can be called a thriller instead of a horror film. The story of the film is interesting and well written but Raman's screenplay looks loose while his dialogues are okay. Cinematography by Anuj Dhawan is a major asset of the film. Editing by Hakeem Azeez and Nipun Gupta is decent. Arko Pravo Mukherjee's music is okay. Baxkground score by Avedis Ohanian and Aditya Trivedi is effective but the decibel levels of the background score needed to checked at several places.

Performance wise Adil Hussain has been exceptional in the film, almost flawless. Lisa Ray has been decent and apt for the role. Saqib Salem is impressive. Huma Qureshi is just about average. Madalina Bellariu is convincing as the spirit of the mirror, Anna. All the other actors do as required.

On the whole, Dobaara: See Your Evil is dull, exhausting and just forgettable.

Not sure how anyone thought this would be a good movie, rubbish storyline, if this is a remake of a movie, it's not a very good movie.

3rd class copy of oculas movie. Don't waste your time guys. I can't understand why Bollywood filmmakers copy the HOLLYWOOD movies theme... Perhaps they don't have talent like Hollywood and can't use their own brain ...

Years after a family tragedy, a woman takes her recently-released brother with her to a remote house in order to confront the demonic entities inside a cursed mirror that started the earlier incident, only to find the mirror at the cause of events going far beyond her expectations.

Overall, this turned out to be quite the enjoyable remake. One of the finer aspects here is the fact that this one does manage to follow up on the same general setups as the original film is a pretty straightforward remake. The ability to really dig into the backstory that's offered here, from the loving-family beginning to the time he spent in the asylum and how that's affecting their ability to stop the forces at work within the mirror itself makes this quite detailed with their relationship at the heart of the first half. Featuring the same setup of the two going away in order to prove their point, this one generates some rather fun ideas with the same setup exploring the history of the mirror in the different ages which work nicely into the family's troubled backstory. This is played out in the flashbacks to them as kids detailing the final days before the tragedy that has some fine work here. Focusing on her single-minded determination to get the truth revealed manages to turn out some rather chilling scenes here, from the trick with the varying individuals inside the house to the intense sequence that far more accurately shows the reason for the mirror's tortured history which in turn sparks the film's finest moment in the revelation about the past tragedy which is shown being inflicted upon the kids as well as the encounter with the figure in the mirror at the same time which not only is a chilling scene but also has some stellar action involved as well as the final half where they finally come face-to-face with the different ghosts in the house. Being unable to tell the truth about the different realities makes for a fun time here, and with the enhanced action and some chilling moments generated by the creepy-looking ghosts, these here prove to hold it up over it's few minor flaws. Much like the original, the main problem with this one is the rather bland pacing. Far too often in this one, the insistence of the psychological torments the mirror inflicts on others takes centerstage which results in plenty of time without much happening. Since their setup and eventual revelation of the history about the mirror takes up most of the first half here, there's not much actual supernatural action really featured here which causes this one to really feel quite dull for long stretches of time. While it remains quite enjoyable based on the eventual descent into madness featured here, the pace is still quite troublesome with the way it focuses more so on the psychologically damaging effects on the family than the shock-jumps. The other big issue here is the problem trying to keep the story lines straight as the repeated flashbacks make it difficult at times to determine what actually is going on with the actions taking place in different realities. The familiarity might also be an issue since it does play so close to the original, but overall, these here really lower this one.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence, Language, implied violence-against- animals and children-in-jeopardy.

Ise such a bad remake of the official Hollywood movie director has not done at all justice to this movie I would advise everybody to stay away from watching such a movie.