Yep…. Just when this lil’ Catgirl goes and thinks she’s seen it all, something like this comes along and makes me giggle like a schoolgirl and gasp “Huh?….WTF?!?“ From India, home of some of the downright wackiest cinema in the whole wide world comes “Mallanna”…. a Superhero/ Action/ Romance featuring a dark brooding hero righting wrongs, fighting the forces of evil, and helping the poor and downtrodden…. all while dressed like a giant rooster. Cock-a-doodle-KAPOW!!!

Oh yeah…. Neko just couldn’t miss this one.

Our synopsis for it reads: “The plot revolves around CBI officer Mallanna, along with his oldest school friends, granting the wishes of the needy people who write letters to a local  Temple, disguised like an anthropomorphic chicken. During a CBI income tax raid, he discovers that Ponnusamy, a rich important entrepreneur, is hiding illicit money. To escape the questioning, Ponnusamy pretends to be paralyzed. The event angers his daughter Subbulakshmi who returns home from school abroad to go after Mallanna, pretending to love him, seeking her revenge. This forms a cat and mouse chase between the two. While he is also sought after by a local police inspector who tries to solve the mystery of “Lord Mallanna saving the people,” the fate of Mallanna’s disguise leads into the climax of the story.”

Like all Indian film… this one is a hard movie to describe in a quick fashion. Yes, yes….. it’s a Superhero movie…. but it’s also an action film, a comedy, a romance as well as… of course… a musical as well. But… can they really somehow outdo Batman with a story about a guy in a rooster costume?

There’s only one way to find out, and that’s for your Favorite Catgirl to pick up a copy of the newly released DVD and find out. Will it be a movie you’ll want to see as well?

Guess you’ll just have to “Read On!!” and find out… silly!!

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Day 3 and your Favorite Catgirl’s still hard at it… as our new review takes us back to the saffron and curry scented horrors of the Indian Subcontinent. This time, I’ve been lucky enough to score myself a copy of the Telugu Fantasy/ Horror film, “Arundhati”….. my first foray into the wild films of South India.

Our synopsis reads: “Arundhati (played by Anushka Shetty) is a descendant of the Gadwal ruling dynasty. Her marriage is finally arranged and settled with her lover Rahul and his family. A few days before her marriage, she comes to her ancestral home of Gadwal from Hyderabad. There she is drawn to nearby abandoned fort where an evil spirit is lying in wait. Cut to flashback. Three generations back, Jejemma aka Arundhati (also played by Anushka Shetty) kills the evil sadistic womaniser, Pasupathi (played by Sonu Sood) whose eternal spirit vows to take revenge on her and her family. Three generations later, the new Arundhati is destined by fate to face him once again.”

I saw the trailer for this one and was just blown away… It has the look of a great big budget fantasy epic just the way I like them. After many fruitless months of searching, my efforts have finally been rewarded with a nice English friendly DVD at a ridiculously low price…. Yay!!!

So…. will “Arundhati” turn out to be that amazing Indian film I’ll just have to gush endlessly about to all my friends… or will it just be another goofy and confusing musical mess I’ll be embarrassed to admit I even watched?? I guess there’s really only one way to know….

So let’s all pop the popcorn, settle in on the couch and give it a try, shall we?

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Ram Gopal Varma is back with his latest Hindi horror film, “Agyaat, the Unknown” and Neko was lucky enough to snatch up a copy for her very own, although it certainly took some work….. my first DVD for it was terminally messed up and required me to get a replacement sent out so I could finish watching it….

Our synopsis reads: “A film unit goes for a shoot deep into a forest and are killed one by one by some unknown force.”

Ummm? Pretty sparse description, I know… but it’s almost as if people really don’t know how to describe the film at all. In India itself, this one is merely regarded as a “suspense” film. Most marketing for it certainly leans that way…. but the Trailer…. now that gives this lil’ Catgirl entirely different feelings. So… is it a horror movie?….. A “suspense” film?….. Or some sort of “singing & dancing” thriller?

Guess there’s really only one way to find out… and that’s to give “Agyaat” the proper going over so I can clue you all in on just what the heck sort o’ movie we have here….

Psssst!!! That’s your subtle hint to “Read On” if ya wanna find out!!

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It’s time again for some Asian horror with a spicy curry flavor, this time out, it’s Ram Gopal Varma’s latest film, “Phoonk”, which I mentioned here at the Litterbox some months back. This one almost slipped on by me, and the DVD hadn’t shown up anywhere I usually grab my Indian DVD’s. But then…. out of nowhere, it turns up, at of all places, Amazon. There was no mention of subtitles….. and no amount of Internet searching could confirm them, but I took a chance anyway and grabbed it up before is mysteriously disappeared into the mists of legend, never to be seen again…..

Well, it finally arrived, and wonder of wonders, it was indeed gloriously subtitled into english!!! Yay!!! Since I hadn’t seen an Indian horror film in a while, I eagerly watched it that very evening. Is it the crazy Hindi creepfest I’ve been hoping for? Let’s check it out, shall we? (more…)

Today’s review is for “Zibakhana” aka “Hell’s Ground” the new Pakistani horror fest now out on DVD from the good people who do all those great genre films, Mondo Macabro by way of TLA Releasing under their “Danger After Dark” Label….. Directed by Omar Ali Khan, who’s filmsite, thehotspotonline, is an old favorite of Neko’s for it’s great reviews of practically unknown Bollywood/ Lollywood horror films, this one is just sooooo downright strange and Your Favorite Catgirl Princess couldn’t wait to get her lil’ paws on a copy!

Yes…yes… this lil’ Catgirl knows that the Pakistani and Indians are a bit touchy when forced to live near each other…. But here at “Neko’s Litterbox” it’s all one big happy Movie lovin’ world, so I filed this one under the same Category as I do Hindi films. It’s my opinion as an outsider that they share more in common than even they see…anyway “Can’t we all just get along?” Hehehehe!!

But all that stuff aside….Let’s take a peek and see if it’s a winner or not… “Read On” dear people!!

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Another week……another big ol’ stack of DVD’s roll in from overseas…..this week among them was the Hindi horror offering from director Aku Akbar, “Gauri, The Unborn”.

You all know how Hindi films can be….right? Loooooong……. with too many subplots…… and that terrible need to make every single film a musical. (Even if they don’t need to be … or even should be….)
Well I’m happy to say this one comes in at a reasonable 94 minutes in length….and has only one song.….

Seriously. there’s just one song in the narrative, a lullaby, and it actually is woven in as part of the plot…..just like they should be. Given all of these pluses, I had to give it a try…..so how was it you ask? Well…….

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Looks like I still have time for a few more reviews before we all turn into pumpkins…..so here we go with “Veerana”, from India, land of the horror/musical……

The general synopsis for it reads: “Thakur entraps a witch who was creating trouble for the people for long time and hangs her in front of the local people. However, her disciples manage to drag her corpse to a safer place and build a shrine for her. The high priest decides to use the body of Thakur’s daughter as a place for the spirit of witch. On a trip to old ancestral home, Thakur is entrapped and her daughter’s hair are cut. These hair are used by the priest to practice necessary rituals to put the spirit of witch into the body of Thakur’s daughter. The high priest succeeds in putting the spirit into the body of Thakur’s daughter. Then he arrives at her uncles place claiming that he rescued his niece in the middle of the jungle. Uncle is so impressed by the honesty of the man that he asks him to stay on and look after the child. The child behaves strangely just from the first day and then kills her aunt showing it as a suicide. After the trauma, uncle sends his own daughter to grow up in Bombay while niece remains with him. Time passes and daughter comes back to meet her father and cousin. Meanwhile, in the area, some brutal murders are occurring and local authorities are completely on their toes. All these are the works of spirit taking her revenge by using the body of Thakur’s daughter. How will the murderer be recognized and killings stopped?”

Hmmmm? Are you intrigued enough to “Read On”?

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