Dhund: The Fog

Ramsay – the kings of comedy (or was it horror, whatever) wake after years of hibernation. And yes, I did get scared. No not because of the horror element (of course I am not that squeamish) but because rats were constantly dancing on my feet in the khatmal-chaap theatre (where else do such movies run).

So check the plot. A man is repeatedly stabbed, choked to death, stuffed in plastic and dumped in a pool. But he still returns to take revenge. Now was the film a thriller or a horror? That itself is the suspense for you to discover. And the end turns out to be another mask mystery. Remember those trademark Ramsay undercover agents – men wearing some stupid horror masks. Only here the mask is of a human. I suppose, no more detailing is required to skip this flick.

Amarr Upadhyay tends to get over-dramatic and theatrical, forgetting the difference between cinema and TV soaps. A cheaply and skimpily dressed Aditi Gowitrikar in her typical pink lipstick looks like ….. (Uh! you know what).

The background score is a straight lift from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Not a single department of the film, whether technical or creative, is worth commenting. Novelty lacks both in story and execution.

Dhund certainly fogs your senses.

I actually enjoyed many of the musical sequences such as the celebration song and dance in Ch.14 "Mein Albeli..." Those girls kicked butt! Great choreography! (what's with the pantyhose lines?) I'd go for just a slight costume re-design but it is cute nonetheless. Sleeker undergarments, sheer-to-waist pantyhose, etc... This movie is so confused~if you watch it with English subtitles, sometimes they say a sentence in English, otherwise it's mostly Hindu so it makes it odd and kind of "disconcertingly, humorously, absurd"~ : p when they do. I also think 2 & 1/2 hours (plus 3 min.) is a bit much but, I can't conceive what should be cut w/o changing its "comedic absurdist" elements.

I rented this movie with my friends originally thinking it was the '85 Fog. I was very wrong. I read on the back when we put it in that it was Bollywood, but I thought, no way is there singing! It's a thriller! There is indeed singing. The first time I watched it I was watching it for the absurdity of a scary movie that was a musical. Crazy bad acting showed up once and a while, like when some characters get hit, they spiral out of control, hit things, and keep spinning. There were also cases of sound effects that didn't match the action. The plot may have been a little sketchy, but I found it very hard to get bored. The second time I watched it I saw it for what it was supposed to be. I wasn't scared like I think I was supposed to be, but I appreciated the humor that was meant to be humorous, and even trying to sing along as best I could. This is a movie that is worth watching at least once: good music, random song and dance, crazy plot, and awesome characters!

When I think Bollywood. I think of lite feel good musical dance numbers, with gorgeous outfits on the men and women. And catchy tunes. Horror, Thrillers, Mystery and Suspense, don't come to mind though. And this, to my Western eyes, is like an abstract comedy.

I think it would have been a better movie, shorter even, if the writer and the director had made a definite choice. Either gone for outright Thriller-Horror, Comedy-Mystery, Supernatural-Suspense or Musical-Romance, instead of an awkward mixture of them all.

I'll have to say more than once I thought the director must have seen "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and tried to give it a Bollywood twist. My first film was Bride & Prejudice. Which I thought was acted well.

This seemed like what a Western Audience would consider a straight to video cheese fest.

The acting was over the top, at times it felt like they were intentionally trying to parody western thrillers, but when you saw them try to inject the dramatic crying, screaming or fear, it felt out of place.

The viewer was left wondering when one of the actors would wink at the camera. More than a few times when the audience was supposed to be horrified, we could only snicker a the absurdity.

I watch a lot of foreign films, and even though I don't know Hindi, I have to say they did a poor job subtitling the film. Sometimes it was difficult to read the white lettering against the bright background.

The villain was particularly amusing, at least to me, because he came with his own mood music. The supposed surprising twist, actually felt like a cop out.

The lead couples were handsome/pretty enough, and the musical numbers made it worth my rental fee. I'd suggest it to someone as a musical- comedy, but I'd tell them to just fast forward the rest of the movie, because it wasn't worth the effort of reading. If you're determined to read a whole subtitled Hindi flick, then check out the superior Romantic Drama 'Namasteay, London'.

But I was not scared..unless that's really what they think is horrifying in India. 1 out of 10 for what it's being touted as. 6 out of 10 for it's unintentional quickness & ability to illicit lots of laughs, and it's musical/dance numbers. Enjoy :)

Dhund-The Fog is a really bad take off on the Hollywood horror flick I Know What You Did Last Summer. Nothing about the film works in its favor. The weak screenplay coupled with some lousy acting from the lead actors are to blame.

The story revolves around a group of friends: Sameer (newcomer Amar Upadhyay), Simran (Aditi Govitrikar), Kunal (Apoorva Agnihotri) and Kajal (Divya Palat). Simran always wins at a beauty contest and this lands her in a soup as a contestant Tanya's (Shweta Menon) brother, Ajit (Irrfan Khan) tells her not to participate in the contest as he wants his sister to win. If she participates in the contest, then he's kill her. But she ignores the warning of the mentally retarded brother and takes part in the contest and wins. Tanya decides to kill herself after losing the contest but her brother thwarts her moves. He swears revenge on Simran and goes to her house to kill her. But he gets killed instead. A frightened Simran along with her friends decides to get rid of his body by throwing it on a railway track to make his death look like a suicide. However, the dead man rises from his grave and starts extracting his ultimate revenge.

The performances are really bad. The four lead actors look confused and sleepwalked throughout the film. The worst actor among them is definitely Aditi Govitrikar. She hams incessantly and screams and yells. Divya Palat looks lost in front of camera. Apoorva Agnihotri does show his spark in the climax but at that time, he could really do nothing to save the film. Amar Upadhyay is one of the worst actors to be seen in Bollywood after a long time. Maybe he should get back to small screen. The only actor who puts his best effort in the film is Irrfan Khan. He does look scary and his looks are at par with his crazy, kinky role. Irrfan shows he can really go a long way in Bollywood. Prem Chopra and Gulshan Grover are just okay. Shweta Menon has a 15 minute-ish role.

It seems the director Shyam Ramsay created a rough draft but forgot to put his finishing touches on it. The weak screenplay is his biggest undoing. The editing is slow and the pace drops in the second half, making the movie a torture for the viewer.

I've never seen a film where the actors look so disinterested in the proceedings and are just there for the sake of being paid.

Like its title, Dhund-The Fog disappears in the fog once the film is over.

Avoid!!!