Its different alright...but is it good?. Review on Darna Mana Hai

Let me first run through the plot quickly. I guess everyone knows it by now - six friends get stuck in a forest one night when their cars break down..they make a bon-fire and start talking about their lives..soon their conversation moves into ghosts and supernatural tales they have heard. And each one has a tale to tell. After each tale, one person each gets up and leaves for the car, or to relieve himself or to take a walk or just because the director asked them to. They all get slashed to death by this psycho stalking them. In the end all dies.

My thoughts? well...I didnt like the movie. I think my opinion banks with the minority though, because most of my friends who saw it liked it...but then I have my own reasons:)

'Six stories..one ending'..the promos said...but I didn't know that they meant it literally. When I first saw the promos I thought - ' hey! heres a movie with a thick, thinking plot, gotta see it!' I mean - not one, not two, but SIX seperate storylines are brought together and merged and fused to create a single ending..wow! I couldn't wait to see it. Little did I know that the only inter - connection between the six tales were that they were told by folks sitting together one particular night, to be precise, their last night.

whoooosh...damp cracker!

Ok..I give RGV his due..heres one guy whose not afraid to experiment. Thats good, new genres get created this way..and I have to agree RGV has really influenced some changes in the Hindi Film Industry. But I tell you, Darna Mana Hai was really a let down for me. RGV does experiment, but of late, I think the results are not all that good. I think people see his movies just because they are different, not because they are THAT good. And thats not good, Ramu Bhai- sun rehe ho? well I think hes not listening...I can almost imagine this guy sitting back home , busy thinking : ' Next kya karu thoda hatke?'

Director Prawaal Raman is good with the technical aspects of movie making as is evident from DMH. But good cinematography doesnt make a good cinema. I dont want to go into the details of each tale told by the folks, though that is main portion of the movie, cause I think thats unnecessary and would only make this review longer (and boring:). I can tell u that the crew has made a good attempt to make the stories different, scary and with a twist in the end - its almost like an indianised tele-version of what u would get if Edgar Allan Poes horror novels mated with O Henry's twist-in-the-last-line classics..

Most of my friends liked the tales by the way..but my point is..if u are to tell a tale that lasts 15 mins..without the why and how, then anyone can tell such tales. For instance take the very first tale. Antara Mali and Sohail Khan, a young married couple get stranded in the middle of the jungle one night, when their car breaks down. Sohail gets out, opens the bonnet and gets to the task. After a long time, seeing no progress, Antara gets out, to check and sees theres none behind the bonnet. She panics and runs about and in a nearby swamp sees Sohail drowning into the quicksilver with only his Rolex (is it one?) watch adorned hand held up in despair..as Antara shrieks Sohail walks behind her as perplexed as she is..Antara goes all nuts seeing him..and checks his watch and stuff..its the real one alright..we are all curious now to know who went to his doom in the quicksilver. As the ride back with Antara resting on his chest, we are shown a glimpse of a wicked smile creeping up Sohail's lips...and then the rear view mirror is shown with only Antara no reflection of Shohail!

Ok..cool story snippet..but the thing is that there is no rules applicable to this..no cause and effect...where did they come from? where do they go? why did all this happen? what will happen after that? no answers...well if we dont have to give answers like that, then anyone can cook up the most daring storylines.

The only tale in the six ones that I thought was applaudable was the one about the school teacher whose 3rd standard class mate's spirit comes for his revenge..that was good..was a complete tale. thats whats important.

And the main plot was so weak, it could barely stand up. Everyone dies and as spirits, sit and watch as the police come and take their dead bodies away. well well.

To sum it: watch this movie (if u havent seen it already), just to see the advent of new genres developing in Bollywood. Apart from that, theres nothing much to it.