Friday, May 13, 2011
Ragini MMS
Bungle in the Jungle
While her TV soap operas extol the virtues of the great Indian family, Ekta Kapoor has been trying to tap a different market for her films. And she has, quite astutely, figured out the sex sells. Now, with the censors getting more liberal, filmmakers can also get bolder. Combine sex with horror (with the Hollywood slasher genre does without any qualms), and there is an audience out there wanting to watch locally made soft (well, almost) porn.
Dibakar Bannerjee’s Love Sex Aur Dhoka was a somewhat daring attempt to get a mix of sex, social comment and experimentation with new technology. Ragini MMS, directed by Pawan Kripalani is just unimaginative and exploitative--- the horror is not scary enough, the sex is not titillating enough. After a point, it just turns out to be a more boring version of the several horror films from the Ram Gopal Varma Factory. As far as the jerky, grainy visuals go, Hollywood has already done it all with films like The Blairwitch Project and Paranormal Activity, so Ragini MMS is not even a genre-breaker in any way.
A girl called Ragini (Kainaz Motiwala) sneaks off for a dirty weekend with her boyfriend Uday (Raj Kumar). The first thing you wonder why she is even with such a coarse and abusive guy. They land up at the jungle getaway, with a miraculously uninterrupted power supply, where, unknown to Ragini, hidden cameras have been placed to catch the two in action. There is a lot of kissing, heavy breathing and bleeped out profanity, but there is constant interruption. The censors must have passed the film, because the actors always remain fully, if skimpily, clothed.
First their friends turn up, and then a Marathi-speaking ghost sends across sporadic scares. Ragini is handcuffed to the bed for a large part of the film, and it does make you wonder how she goes without water, food and a loo. When the plot (such as it is) runs out of tricks, and the two simply cannot get into bed and start the heavy breathing routine again, the film degenerates into mass killing of random strangers. The two lead actors are earnest and uninhibited, which is the best that can be said about them.
The film is being positioned as a date movie, so maybe it will be frequented by masses of giggly teens connecting with the frustration of the characters in the movie; if here is a moral in there, it is: Don’t get too close to the boyfriend, he may be a pervert! So Ekta Kapoor has her cake (of peddling voyeurism) and eats it too (by advocating restraint).
While her TV soap operas extol the virtues of the great Indian family, Ekta Kapoor has been trying to tap a different market for her films. And she has, quite astutely, figured out the sex sells. Now, with the censors getting more liberal, filmmakers can also get bolder. Combine sex with horror (with the Hollywood slasher genre does without any qualms), and there is an audience out there wanting to watch locally made soft (well, almost) porn.
Dibakar Bannerjee’s Love Sex Aur Dhoka was a somewhat daring attempt to get a mix of sex, social comment and experimentation with new technology. Ragini MMS, directed by Pawan Kripalani is just unimaginative and exploitative--- the horror is not scary enough, the sex is not titillating enough. After a point, it just turns out to be a more boring version of the several horror films from the Ram Gopal Varma Factory. As far as the jerky, grainy visuals go, Hollywood has already done it all with films like The Blairwitch Project and Paranormal Activity, so Ragini MMS is not even a genre-breaker in any way.
A girl called Ragini (Kainaz Motiwala) sneaks off for a dirty weekend with her boyfriend Uday (Raj Kumar). The first thing you wonder why she is even with such a coarse and abusive guy. They land up at the jungle getaway, with a miraculously uninterrupted power supply, where, unknown to Ragini, hidden cameras have been placed to catch the two in action. There is a lot of kissing, heavy breathing and bleeped out profanity, but there is constant interruption. The censors must have passed the film, because the actors always remain fully, if skimpily, clothed.
First their friends turn up, and then a Marathi-speaking ghost sends across sporadic scares. Ragini is handcuffed to the bed for a large part of the film, and it does make you wonder how she goes without water, food and a loo. When the plot (such as it is) runs out of tricks, and the two simply cannot get into bed and start the heavy breathing routine again, the film degenerates into mass killing of random strangers. The two lead actors are earnest and uninhibited, which is the best that can be said about them.
The film is being positioned as a date movie, so maybe it will be frequented by masses of giggly teens connecting with the frustration of the characters in the movie; if here is a moral in there, it is: Don’t get too close to the boyfriend, he may be a pervert! So Ekta Kapoor has her cake (of peddling voyeurism) and eats it too (by advocating restraint).
Labels: Cinemaah
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