Paparelli's Movie ReviewsDarna Zaroori Hai
Friday, May 12, 2006
year: 2006directed by: various
written by: Manish Gupta, Sajid Khan, Ram Gopal Varma
notable cast: various
Paparelli's rating:
(0 = worst, **** = best)This movie, of which the title translates to "You must be scared", is a sequel to another movie just like it. 'Darna Zaroori Hai' combines about six horror stories, much like 'The Twilight Zone: the Movie', only this is a Bollywood movie.
It is actually the second recent Bollywood movie I've seen and I must say the production quality of these movies is of a very high level. For certain disciplines way beyond the average Hollywood movie of today.
'Darna Zaroori Hai' is very well made, featuring great camerawork, set-dressing and art direction. There is also good use of music and sound effects. All tools of the cinematic trade are well utilized to create great scenes and tell frightening stories.
Acting is also of a high standard. The acting is a bit more stylized than one would expect in western cinema and the characters can sometimes appear somewhat caricaturized, but this certainly brought me in the right mood. Horror stories should be told with a winking eye. And especially the opening story and explosive title sequence set the right athmosphere.
This way of using stereotypes for quickly sketching a personality, employing well-known traits and combining them to create an easily identifyable character is a good way to get the audience more involved in the story. These characters become easily accessible, so the attention can be focussed on main characters and storyline.
Combining comical caricatures with serious roles in serious stories often brings comic relief and seems to be a regular style in Bollywood movies. This careful and well directed use of humour within a serious story context is something that would be welcome in Hollywood movies too.
The horror stories that are told, vary in the ways they are scary and some are more frightening than others. There are some brilliant moments that had me pushed back into my seat with fear. The sound and musical effects are sometimes a bit on the heavy side, but most stories gave me a few good jumps and a sense of scary expectation throughout.
This is a kind of movie one would have to be in the mood for, but if you are it's fantastic. I'd love to see it again, and I'm certainly interested in seeing the movie preceeding it (Darna Mana Hai).
0 Comments:
Post a Comment