Our synopsis sounds awfully familiar…. and goes sorta like this: “Avi (Shreyas Talpade) while dating a model Sonia (Sada) is a successful photographer. They hit a girl while driving back from a party and decide to run. A ghostly picture starts appearing in all of Avi’s photographs after this incident. Three of Avi’s friends are killed one by one and both Sonia is convinced it is the girl’s ghost after them.”

This one is another of the many “uncredited”…  almost direct scene for scene remakes done by the Hindi film industry. Practically any successful movie done anywhere eventually gets the “Bollywood” treatment to make the story more palatable for their domestic audience. So then? How close will the Hindi film copy the Thai one? Will it manage to equal the chills while weaving in those peculiarly goofy “Bollywood” elements we’ve all come to know …and sometimes fear more than the ghosts themselves? Well Neko’s never been one to let a little thing like blatant plot rip-off get between me and a movie, especially a ghost story, so I guess I’ll find out.

You wanna know more, you say? Then all you gotta do is “Read On”!!

Your Favorite Catgirl has the eerie feeling she’s been here before….. or at least I’m experiencing again the cinematic equivalent of deja vu that is sometime the Bollywood horror film. You know what I’m talking about…. films like “Bhoot”, which was basically “The Sixth Sense” put through the Hindi cultural filter or more specifically ones like “Naina” aka Bollywood’s version of the HK hit, “The Eye” or even Ram Gopal Varma’s “Darna Mana Hai”, the Hindi equivalent of “Campfire Tales”. Yep….. this is one of those. In this case, it appears somebody in Mumbai must have finally watched Thailand’s “Shutter”… (or maybe just saw the Americanized remake, Hehehehe) and figured it was time to take a crack at this one.

The plot doesn’t stray at all from the Thai movie you might remember. As before, this one concerns the story of a young hip photographer and his model girlfriend, this time out named Avi and Sonia, and their brush with the supernatural vengeance of a “Long Haired Ghost” named Aarti. Even though the story tries to make you think the whole thing has been caused by the death of Aarti in a hit and run accident…. just like was done in “Shutter”… it’s not. The filmmakers made no attempt to change the story at all, and that’s the biggest flaw here. All the suspense is wasted as we’re all in on the “twist ending” right from the beginning. I has originally hoped for something to go in a different direction, but nope…. not gonna happen.

However…. it’s at least interesting to see the film as an example of how to weave those traditional Hindi movie ideas into a good story in a proper fashion rather than the jarring slapdash attempts we sometimes get. Yes… yes… I know….. that means the singing and dancing stuff. But, surprisingly for this lil’ Catgirl…. this time they actually work. The opening credits are a nicely done musical number about photography… mercifully short and used to enhance a modeling sequence introducing Avi and Sonia as our main characters. After a few minutes we get a song and dance sequence disguised as a celebration at a nightclub for Avi, Sonia, and some old friends that Avi has had a falling out with in college. (Yep…. you know why if you’ve seen “Shutter”, but hey…. let’s just roll with it….). Most surprising… there’s another musical interlude partway through shown as a montage of those same friends all having fun in the sun during a getaway to blow off steam once the weird ghostly bits start to get them down. This particular song, Rubayee, was actually a very nice pop duet that was both catchy and infectious…. and had me liking the moment! Who’d have thunk it?

As in “Shutter” there’s the bits about spirit photography, but not treated with the level of importance you might remember. All we get is one strange Indian Professor who’s into the whole “ghost” thing… but he’s not particularly useful to our heroes, feeling like he’s been included just for his oddball looks and antics. Avi’s friend at the photo store has less of a role as well in this version too. Instead there’s a bit more available screen time to lavish on ghostly Aarti and her creepy appearances as she slowly kills her enemies, haunts Avi, and tries to show Sonia what really happened to her back in college.

This is where “Click” is at it’s best…. and this is indeed one sharp, modern looking film, despite it’s lack of original material. If you are remembering Hindi horror films from the 80′s and 90′ in the days of the Ramsay Brothers then you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see that production values in Indian films have improved dramatically since then. The visuals, the effects, and the overall cinematography displayed here throughout are high quality and help lift this one up to a very respectable level.

But…. it can only lift it just so far given the lack of innovation or originality, plot wise. My sweetie Carolyn actually liked this one more than I did…. surprisingly enough… but I’m thinking that was mostly because she’s never seen “Shutter”… ever. I found myself at times nearly losing interest as the story unfolded just as I remembered. Luckily, the cast here is at least a good one, with plenty of chemistry between them, and usually when my interest would lag, the filmmakers would wow me with another particularly nice piece of ghostly eye-candy to revive me.

Eventually the story turns to the death and mayhem you might expect if you saw the Thai film, but here it’s all less bloody…. Hindi film being just a wee bit more squeamish about the particulars of such action. Ahhhhh…. and the plot element of Aarti’s rape at the hands of Avi’s college buddies…. Now there’s a taboo notion in Hindi film. At no point is it actually stated what happened between Aarti and the guys….. and the rape scene itself is done as a confusing jumble of juxtaposed images of them, her and some classic Hindi paintings showing demons ravaging virgins. Afterwards it’s only said that she was “disgraced”….. leading her to suicide. Quite clever given the constraints of the Hindi film censorship rules under which this one was made.

The ending? Well, if you too, have already seen “Shutter”, then you know how it ends. But I suppose you are at least wondering what the overall impression “Click” had for Neko. I can give this one a middle of the road 3 “Meows” out of 5 for…. well…. not surprising me, but not disappointing me either. It ain’t the most original film out there but it’s a quality attempt to produce a version the Hindi audience, at least, will certainly identify with. Throw in some musical numbers that didn’t annoy me for a change (and at least one of which I found catchy and entertaining), keep it to a reasonable 2 hour running time, and I’m a reasonably happy Catgirl indeed.

The Hindi DVD is it’s usual Region free NTSC format in anamorphic wide-screen with those excellent English subtitles we all know and love. Slap a 10-13$ price tag on it with reasonable domestic availability, and you’re in business if you want an evening of Hindi film fun. I wouldn’t say rush right out and grab it if you’ve already seen “Shutter”, unless you, like a certain Catgirl, are just plain goofy for foreign horror films, but it’s certainly worth a rental. On that note, it’s “Meow, meow, for now” until the next time I decide to spring my latest review at the Litterbox upon you all, Gentle Visitors!!

There’s a Trailer, of course, so let’s all take a peek, shall we?

The synopsis? Well it goes like this: “Anushka (Tanushree Dutta) marries a widower Ravi (Sachin Khedekar) against her mother’s wishes. Just when the duo is about celebrate a year of their married life in a new house in Goa, the nightmare begins. It turns out the house is haunted and the evildoer behind inexplicable events is no older than a little girl. Haunted by the girl’s ghost, Anushka approaches a healer who tells her that the house is cursed and there is a definite link to Ravi’s dead wife. Things then take a turn when Ravi is murdered and the blame falls squarely on Anushka who’s then sent to a mental asylum to gain her sanity back. But the ghost follows her there. Anushka just about manages to flee.

Enter Anushka’s sister Ahaana (Udita Goswami) who, with the help of a police inspector (Shaad Randhawa) tries to unearth the mystery behind the haunted house and save her sister, and later on herself, from the curse of the evil spirit.”

Certainly sounds like a ghost story to this lil’ Catgirl, and you all know how Neko just dotes on her silly ghost stories….. The price is nice, and it’s all subtitled in English and ready to go. Naturally I just had to grab a copy for my viewing pleasure. Will I like it as much as “Phoonk”? Guess I’ll find out!

So can you, o’ Gentle Reader… as always here at the Litterbox, you have only to “Read On” to get all the details for yourself!!

By now you, (and my sweet Carolyn as well) are probably saying to me.. “But Miyuki?…. Isn’t this just another of those tediously overlong Indian movies with all that goofy musical stuff? I don’t know if I’m ready for another of those…….” Not to worry. It seems Hindi films are slowly but surely moving away from their standard formula of being mostly vehicles for MTV style pop music sales and flashy superfluous choreographed dance sequences. “Rokkk” has none of the standard musical interludes this lil’ Catgirl usually has to suffer through to watch a Hindi film…. instead being a very tightly plotted narrative driven story with a very Western feel to the storytelling. Thank Goodness! Now…. a few wise Indian film makers do take the effort from time to time to weave those elements into their films with some attempt at making them relevant to the overall story…. unfortunately not all of them do, and it’s this tendency towards simply cramming in musical numbers to please a domestic audience that, in my opinion, has always held most Hindi films back from being taken seriously by the rest of the world. That’s not a problem here. “Rokkk” is a coherent story, well plotted for the most part, and seems to have paid good attention to the Asian “Long Haired Ghost” genre from which it obviously takes much of it’s inspiration. Not only that…. it seems to be truly a film “inspired by” those films rather than simply a direct copy of any of them. And all coming in at a reasonable running time just short of 2 hours….. Nice…..

Our film starts out with a strange frantic phone call from to our heroine Ahaana from her estranged sister Anushka… something terrible has happened and Anushka need her sister’s help. Seems she’s being held in a Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane, accused of the brutal murder of her beloved older husband and his sister. Before Ahaana can get any details, Anushka is discovered by the hospital staff and dragged away to her cell screaming for help and proclaiming her innocence. Even though her mother has held Anushka’s marriage to a rich, much older husband against her, Ahaana is determined to help her however she can.

We go into a flashback here… back to the start of all Anushka’s troubles, and the first anniversary of her marriage to Ravi, her wealthy older husband. It seems, despite her mother’s dislike of their marriage, the two actually are happily in love…. a very solid relationship with no problems that has even managed to win over the approval of Ravi’s younger sister Nishi, who has come to love her sister-in-law almost as much as her husband does. To celebrate this, Ravi has moved them all into a beautiful house he owns in Goa to begin their life together in a new place to call their own. Unfortunately for them….. the house is both haunted as well as cursed!! (Don’t ya just hate when that happens?)

Weird things start to happen immediately, but seemingly only Anushka notices them…. The typical haunting stuff, strange noises, moving objects, power failures, blood dripping from the ceiling… you know the drill. Next the terrifying specter of this long haired little girl, all crazy and bedraggled starts appearing to her, menacing her at every turn with some unknown evil intent. That’s when things get bad. Her husband Ravi thinks she’s simply seeing things, but eventually decides to move them out of this house of ill omen and back to their old one to calm her fears. It doesn’t help, as the ghostly lil’ girl follows them. She seeks help from a strange agoraphobic spiritualist, but it’s too late. The angry ghost starts possessing people too. First Nishi, who experiences that whole long haired ghost thing where evil hair sneaks up on you and gets you…. then it abandons her to take over Anushka so it can kill both Ravi and Nishi. The police show up, find the hysterical Anushka covered in the blood of her victims, and it’s off to the asylum…. Time to flash forward.

Ahaana rushes to the asylum to find out what has happened to her sister, but before she can get there the evil ghost strikes again and tries to kill Anushka. By the time Ahaana finally arrives, her sister is nowhere to be found, the police are convinced she’s escaped…. and that somehow Ahaana is part of a cover-up of this. As part of the investigation of her escape, snide police inspector Ranvir makes it his goal to keep an eye on Ahaana till she leads him to her missing sister. He figures she’s got something to do with the death of Ravi’s first wife Pooja too, but even though this keeps getting mentioned, nothing is ever done plot wise about this, we never even learn how or why she actually died. This glaring plot hole is about the only real problem overall with the story, and one that could easily have been remedied by simply mentioning a visit she could have made to the house, thus falling victim to the curse……

At least by now we viewers know the particulars of that curse…. It seems that anybody who so much as touches the shadow of the house is fated to die. It’s that simple. But of course Ahaana doesn’t know that…. so she starts right out falling victim to the curse herself and drawing the attentions of that evil lil’ ghost. If only she had the evil Black Magic book her sister found in the cellar of the house (The one bound in demon skin with the freaky eyeball that looks like it came right out of “The Evil Dead”)…. but unfortunately it’s disappeared along with Anushka. Darn….

Eventually heroine and skeptical policeman find their way to that same spiritualist and find out this all has to do with the death of that little girl years ago, a grieving mothers desperate attempt to raise the dead using the powers of Black Magic, and her failure thanks to the interference of a mean spirited drunk named…. Steve…. Yes, I kid you not….. Steve. I had quite the laugh over this… it just seems so jarring to hear such a name for a Hindi guy in amongst all the native ones, but hey, maybe Steve is a really popular Hindi name that just happens to also sound like the name of a geeky Western guy. (Somehow Neko sorta doubts it though…..Hehehe!!)

More deaths follow…. the ghost certainly understands that whole “unholy vengeance thing”, and wastes no time killing Steve before Ahaana and Ranvir can even find him. They have marginally better luck finding the lil’ girl’s mother, now crazy and hiding within a house protected by sacred seals like our spiritualist’s is. She fills them in on the ceremony she tried, explains the curse, tells them they’ll need the book to end it, and then promptly leaves the house for the demon to kill.

Our climax is close at hand…. and so Neko’s gotta give you her “Spoiler Warning” before we wrap this up, as I’m thinking you all just might want to watch the film yourselves. Don’t want to spoil the fun for ya now do I?

Just when you think this movie might be going the direction of most Hindi films and throwing a “romance angle” in which our Heroine Ahaana and tough cynical cop Ranvir fall in love, that idea gets stomped flat….. along with poor Ranvir who’s the next to die, run over by his own car. Wow…. really didn’t see that coming, but it’s surprisingly refreshing to see the strong female character left to work out things on her own for a change without the help of a “strong capable man”, not something a lot of Hindi films do.

Having failed to find the book, Ahaana is forced to confront the evil demon girl with the help of the spiritualist in a plan to trick the demon into possessing her so she can kill herself (and presumably the demon) when it’s at it’s weakest during the time of the new moon. It fails…. but luckily Anushka shows up, right at the crucial moment, evil book in hand, to end things with the powers of Black Magic she garnered from studying the book since her escape from the asylum. The two sisters join forces and destroy the evil creature, ending it’s threat once any for all. Or do they?…… Let’s just say our final moments leave open the possibility of a “Rokkk 2″ being in our future…..

So how does this one rate? Hmmmmm? I actually liked this one a lot…. and it’s a worthy addition to the “Long Haired Ghost” genre that you all know I’m just nutty for. With it’s very “Western” feel, a strong female heroine, and a sensible easily understood story (for the most part…. there are a couple of minor plot holes) , I can comfortably give “Rokkk” a well deserved 4 “Meows” out of 5. It’s a good film to watch if Hindi films aren’t really your thing but horror movies are. I’m not certain how well received it was in India, but I can tell you it should do very well in foreign distribution if anyone cares to try marketing it. Hopefully they will, it’s the sort of film that could start making the Indian film industry start making real inroads towards a broader acceptance by a world audience. The DVD itself? Let’s see…. as always, the Hindi DVD is very well produced, with excellent accurate English subtitles and a gorgeous 16:9 letterboxed format at a price that can’t be beat. If you see it lurking around, your Favorite Catgirl says grab it for certain and have a creepy evening of chills, Hindi style. Hopefully I’ll be just as lucky with the other Hindi horror movies I picked up along with this lil’ gem….. Till then, Gentle Readers, “Meow, meow for now!”

Yep, I managed to snag a Trailer, suitably pacify it and here it is for your viewing pleasure!!

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!!

Ok.. now this one is a strange bird indeed, and I only discovered it thanks in large part to my recent interest in South Indian Telugu cinema….. (Ahhh! “Arundhati”…. how you opened a new world of crazy film for this silly girl..) This one though isn’t originally Telugu at all… it’s Tamil, from Sri Lanka I’m told, where it’s originally known as “Kanthaswamy”. But… you dub it into Telugu and it becomes “Mallanna”…. and probably something else if it ever gets a Hindi release as well, I guess. Heck… it might even get remade with all new actors in the roles…. Indian cinema is just sorta goofy like that. At least it’s subtitled into English….. Yay!!

It’s a big film… with a script that takes our heroes from the squalor of modern urban India to the dry dusty deserts of Mexico and everywhere in between. Basically, it’s one of those hybrids the Indian audiences like… with our hero playing a dedicated cop working in the special “Economic Crimes Division” trying to keep India’s decadent rich from hiding away all their untaxed, unclaimed assets from the government by going all Elliot Ness on their crooked butts. Seems this is a big ol’ problem and Indian law makes prosecuting such VIP’s nearly impossible. But Inspector Mallanna’s (played by Vikram) has got his own ideas……

Luckily for us those ideas include smashing away at those rich crooks by day, sledgehammer in hand, raiding their homes and businesses with his crack teams of loyal officers and then stalking the night as the Avatar of the Great God Mallanna, delivering money and hope to those who need it most. It’s during one of these raids, that he finds enough incriminating evidence against rich fat cat Pallur Paramajyothi Ponnusamy, nicknamed PPP (played by Ashish Vidyarthi), to put him away but good. However, Ponnusamy fakes a paralyzing seizure and escapes prosecution on humanitarian grounds. This sets Ponnusamy’s sexy daughter Subbulakshmi (played to Bad Girl perfection by Shriya Saran) on a quest to get revenge against the man who crippled him.

She’s ignorant of her father’s lie, but by no means is she a good girl…. spoiled, over indulged, opinionated, and willing to do anything to get her revenge, she meets her match in the stern, uncompromising ruggedly handsome Mallanna. But she’s also sexy, talented and has a will of iron….. So naturally they’ll fall in love…. if they don’t kill each other first or something.

There’s musical numbers of course, scattered throughout like big chunks of MTV videos stuck in here and there. Most noteworthy for me… a crazy bathroom dance number as our Bad Girl Heroine goes Catgirl on Rooster boy!! No kidding… It just has to be seen to be believed, so thanks to the magic of Youtube I bring you a lil’ spicy musical interlude…. “Meow, meow!!…Soooo sexy!!”

Much of the film is all about the intricate dance these two do as they circle each other… both looking for the chance to pounce and use the other for their own agenda. While this goes on, an honest local cop tries to find the true identity of Mallanna, the “Robin Hood” like savior of the people, ending their “exploitation” by the fake mysticism he uses to instill fear among the wicked as he delivers the stolen money of the crooked billionaires to the poor. He’s got quite the racket going on…. and it takes a huge group of his old school friends to pull it off. Perhaps this is the most unbelievable part of the whole film…. any conspiracy this big would realistically blow itself apart before reaching this level of success. But hey….. it’s done in a fun fashion that generally works.

Eventually the secret gets blown…. Suba finds out her father has been using her anger and lying to her all along and she and Mallanna surrender to the passion that’s been simmering between them like a juicy sweet mango curry just begging to be tasted. Ah… love… sooo nice!! Yay!! (This has to be the first time I have ever thought both main characters in a film were sexy and  physically attractive to me too…. I could actually see myself falling for either of them!! How romantically confusing!! It must have been the “Catgirl Bathroom Dance of Lust!!” Hehehehe!!)

As with many Indian films… there are a few problems to contend with though. It’s a long film….. some 2 hours and 45 minutes or so. Much of this is the musical numbers scattered throughout, but the run time is also padded by having far too many side plots, as well as overselling the main theme of “India would be a healthy nation with pride if only all Indians could share the wealth hoarded by a few”…. Yep… got that message the first time… and the second, and so on…. can we get some more cool Rooster Kung Fu action please? (Many Hindi films fall into this trap to of getting almost nagging about pressing a central message home. Must be a cultural thing…) Had the film cut that back a bit and made itself a tighter story at about…. say 2 hours or so… this one could have been considered a definite classic for fans of weird cinema. As it stands, it hurts the chances of it being seen by all but a few diehards like this lil’ Catgirl. (Carolyn even fell asleep mid way through it on me… and she’s never done that before!!)

Given those flaws, I’d have to give this one only 3 “Meows” out of 5… but mind you there’s also a lot to like here too… and the two main characters have great chemistry together…. the romance actually works…. worth a couple of nice purrs of contentment. Also… the Indian disc itself is excellent… presented in 16:9 anamorphic wide screen, with plenty of options for Trailers and songs (with and without video). My only real quibble being with the quality of the film print used to master it. These films must get the beejeebits worn outta them in distribution….. and apparently no “Master Copies” are kept in vaults or anything…. English subtitles are spot on and excellent, so you can’t go wrong there either. The price is right too… and you ought to be able to score the Region Free Indian DVD for about 8-14$ US. It’s a weird film… but a fun one, and if you don’t buy it, you ought to at least rent it…. Then you too can say you actually saw a big Rooster Guy do his best Batman impression.

Could I leave you guys without a Trailer for this one? Never!! Enjoy the wrath of the “Dark Chicken”!! Hehehehe!

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?

So… this one starts off as Arundhati, the great grand daughter of the Raja of Gadwal Mahasansthan is planning her marriage. Much grand pomp and circumstance is planned as she is the first woman born to the family in over 3 generations…. and more importantly, her family and their retainers all have the same idea that she’s the reincarnation of her great grandmother, Arundhati who was considered the living incarnation of the local Goddess Jejamma. Her great grandma, it seems, was basically Xena, Warrior Princess, Mother Teresa, and Gandhi all rolled into one…. and that’s some big slippers to fill….. trust this lil’ Catgirl. Worse…. Arundhati is the gorgeous spitting image of her famous ancestor so everybody walks around her in awe. The marriage is a big deal, so she returns to her ancestral family home in Gadwal…. which is a big… big… mistake. Seems her great grandma sorta walled up an evil guy alive and now his spirit wants revenge……

You see… waaaay back then, Arundhati’s grandma, Jejamma, had an elder sister who had been married off to her father’s wastrel nephew Pasupati (played by Sonu Sood). Pasupati was a sleazy womaniser and all around sexual sadist who used to ride around the countryside raping all the women that were unlucky enough to catch his eye and killing all those who resisted him. Jejamma’s sister finally committed suicide to escape his torments and her little sister flew into a righteous rage and ordered the people of Gadwal to publicly beat Pasupati nearly to death before tying him behind his horse and sending it galloping off dragging him to what should have been his messy and well deserved death.Though all of Gadwal celebrated Jejamma’s ending of his reign of terror, he somehow survived, saved by the evil Aghora monks, who served the Devil. Pasupati healed and then mastered the forbidden tantrik arts so he could return to Gadwal fort and take his revenge on Jejamma and her entire kingdom. Here’s where things get cool…..

Yep… these Aghora guys…. now they got all those wicked voodoo/ witchcraft/ eastern mystic evil stuff going on and then some…. and when Pasupati returns, the first thing he does is to start killing everybody he can with his magical powers, ripping them apart… slashing them like the wind is full of razors…. smashing them into wall like bloody rag dolls. He’s all set to wipe them all out when Jejamma arrives…. all regal and beautiful and soooo sooo sexy. Having a weakness for such things, he decides instead to satisfy his lusts upon her and rape her right then and there before her remaining family and retainers….. His big mistake….

In a sequence “borrowed” right out of the wonderful Chinese wuxia film “House of Flying Daggers”, Jejamma does a sultry dance with scarves in the middle of a room surrounded by drums…. Yep. Unlike most sequences “borrowed” for Indian films though, this particular version is excellently used and truly fits in. If you hadn’t seen the other film, you’d never realize it…. and the way it’s used here comes across much more as a true homage than a blatant rip off. Also…. unlike Zhang Zhi Yi’s dance… this time our heroine managed to surprise the villain with her tricky sword snatching scarves. Thinking quickly, she binds his hands, chokes his throat before embedding a chunk of glass in his mouth and topping the whole attack off by dropping a huge spiky iron chandelier on top of him skewering him to the floor helplessly. All that’s left is for her to swoop in and behead the bastard….. But nooooooo. The Yogis that are present say that’s a bad… bad… bad idea. He’ll only become an ultra powerful evil spirit then and be unstoppable. D’ohhhh!!!

But…. Jejamma is nothing if not a smart cookie. If she can’t kill him, well….then… that’s OK. She’ll just order her subjects to haul every holy relic, mystic talisman and loose stone from any holy shrine they can find to build a big ol’ tomb right over top of him where he lays. Then you get every Holy man you can find to bless the living beejeebits outta that tomb and that oughtta hold his evil in check forever. It means abandoning the fort…. but that’s a small price to pay to put an end to him at last. Unfortunately…. it still isn’t enough. After 48 days languishing in his tomb, he finally dies and his evil spirit is still powerful enough to curse the land of Gadwal causing sickness, misery and ruining the peoples lives. Jejamma leaves to wander the land, looking for a solution, but telling her people to name the first daughter born to the family after her…. and that she would be her reincarnation come to save them in their hour of need should the evil ever escape. She never returns….. and she’s never heard from again.

But…. 80 years later…. Arundhati is born, and all this stuff is hers to deal with. Her arrival in Gadwal coincides with Pasupati’s escape from his imprisonment in the ruins of the old fort. He’s still evil…. still seething for revenge… and still one nasty horny bastard. He wants  Arundhati…. and he sets out on a mission to make her submit to his will and surrender herself to him. She’s frightened…. and she’s unwilling to believe she’s the reincarnation of her famous ancestor….. luckily she’s got some help in the form of a Muslim Holy guy named Anwar who’s got all the answers to the mystic stuff and just enough Holy whammy to keep her safe enough until her buried memories of her past life reveal to her the solution to her problem.

At this point we get all sorts of neat “Exorcist” meets “Final Destination” effects as evil Pasupati goes about possessing people, murdering Arundhati’s family and friends…. even tricking her husband to be into coming to Gadwal where he can become the ultimate hostage he can threaten to force Arundhati to submit to him at last. Stressed out and desperate…. she finally taps into her buried memories of her past life and finds out that her great grandma sacrificed her own life so that… from her own body… a weapon could be forged by Holy hermits that can actually destroy Pasupati’s evil spirit forever.

Our Holy guy Anwar and our heroine try to find the weapon, but get separated…. and our Anwar is thrown into a bottomless gorge to his death. Oh no!! Broken in spirit… she returns to the ruined fort to prevent the death of her family members by surrendering herself to the evil Pastupati’s unholy lusts. But….. Anwar isn’t dead!! Yay!!! Surviving his fall he manages to collect the weapon from the hermits and brings it safely to her… just in time for the super effects laden climax at the old fort of Gadwal Palace where Pasupati dies at the hands of the reawakened Warrior princess, Arundhati. And boy…. what a finale it is! A deadly fight occurs…. the fort collapses as the evil power that restored it fails…. flames pour from the sky and burn Pastupati  to ash as the innocent villagers scramble to safety.

I have to say….. this one isn’t a perfect film…. there are some definite problems in continuity with the ages of certain characters. A maidservant… aged at the time of Jejamma is still an old lady some 80 years later… But those are minor quibbles that don’t detract much from the spectacle of this one. Neko really got into this one…. and I enjoyed it greatly with the magic and the story of revenge and valor in the face of evil. Neko gives “Arundhati” a definitely well deserved 4 “Meows” out of 5 with many purrs of fond contentment for the gorgeous sets, colorful costumes and even the dancing and singing… which actually works in this one to give it a real feeling of exotic fantasy. If only more Indian films were this much fun…… It’s a very worth while DVD to hunt down…. and for about 5$ US, with a Region Free NTSC Anamorphic Widescreen presentation and excellent subtitles, is an excellent bargain to boot.

Yep, there’s most definitely a Trailer… and to get you as excited as I am about this one, here it is!!

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!!

I’m pleased to say…. having watched this one, “Agyaat” is indeed one of those film likely to be very accessible to foreign tastes. As with most of Ram Gopal Varma’s films, “Agyaat” isn’t exactly your typically Bollywood production. On the one hand, that’s probably why many of his films do so badly at the box office in India itself…. by far, he’s much more “western” influenced than many other producers in the Hindi movie industry. He’s consistently taken to task by reviewers there for failing to provide the expected Indian entertainment elements such as long superfluous musical numbers or overly large casts and unnecessary extraneous plot lines. On the other hand… this does bode well for we foreign movie fans who usually find Hindi films…. well….. somewhat tedious and silly at times and overly preoccupied with trying to make every film into a musical. Ram Gopal Varma seems to be one of the few Hindi producer/ directors that has figured out that unless the Hindi film industry wants to be thought of as hopelessly out of touch with world audiences, you’ve got to take some chances and learn from other film cultures to create works that have broader appeal outside of India itself.

This one starts out simply enough…. with a musical number…. as our hero Sujal (played by Nitin Reddy) fantasizes in a dark movie theater about the popular actress Aasha (played by Priyanka Kothari) for whom he has always had a secret crush on….. (I know… I know… Neko said this one wasn’t going all musical on us, but not to worry, the song is deftly woven into this and actually helps define our hero’s unrequited crush on Aasha without being silly or out of place). Our hero’s daydreams are interrupted by a phone call from his boss, director J.J., to tell him he’s signed Aasha to star in the newest picture he’s planning, a jungle adventure to be shot on location in the wilds of Sri Lanka. Naturally, our boy Sujal is thrilled….. although his best friend Sameera (played by Rasika Duggal), who has always had her own not so secret crush on Sujal, is less impressed. Faster than you can believe, our boy lines up the talent needed to get this project running and it’s off to the jungle to get to the remote shooting location. Only one real headache serves to keep everybody on edge, and that’s the leading man Sharman Kapoor (played to annoying perfection by Gautam Rode) self proclaimed Bollywood “superstar” and all around self absorbed jerk. He’s got it bad for Aasha too…. and as a movie star gets to spend lots and lots of time monopolizing her company to Sujal’s disappointment. But hey…. not to worry…. just about everybody on the shoot just sooooo hates this guy, so Sujal’s got company in his misery.

The film gets off to a bumpy start, but just when it seems they are making progress, a camera snafu ends up creating a two day delay in filming. Their trusty (but awfully weird) local jungle guide, Setu (played by Joy Fernandes) suggests a short sightseeing and camping trip off in the jungle to kill some time. During the first night there, while everyone is partying and enjoying themselves around the bonfire, a freakish sound from the darkened forest upsets them. Setu goes out to investigate…. assuring them that no dangerous animals exist in this forest….. and promptly disappears. When the morning comes, the crew members go out to find him…. as he’s the guy with the keys to the landrover and the only one who knows the way out of the jungle to safety….. Whoops! Instead of finding him playing some joke on them, they find his dead body. Torn to bits in a way none of them could imagine in their worst nightmares. Terrified, they all try to find their way out the jungle, but something unseen follows them……. Trapped and hopelessly lost in the unknown forest,one by one they start dying, victims of the unknown thing.

Here’s where Neko stopped believing this was only a simple “suspense” film. There is no doubt that the thing that pursues our hero and his friends is some sort of eerie unearthly monster….. It’s invisible for one thing…. It can run through the tree tops faster than a monkey smoking Meth… burrow underground faster than a man can run….. not to mention pull a human being into the ground like a man might yank a carrot out of the same ground. Ohhhh…. and did Neko mention it leaves behind pools of boiling blood when it feeds? Ahhhh, yes…. and it’s afraid of water….. like “Dracula” afraid of water. So…. despite what the producer says….. this one is most definitely a horror film. Yep. Now that we’ve got that out of the way….

The bulk of the film deals with the tension between our cast once they reach this point. You just know that our “pain-in-the-ass superstar” Sharman is gonna die…. it’s simply a question as to whether the monster will get him or one of the film crew will get fed up with his whining and kill him themselves. Neko’s not gonna tell ya….. but you just know he’s not gonna be around for “Agyaat 2″. Eventually we find out that Aasha really is a good person inside and out and that she’s been mostly misunderstood by most people who always figured she was nothing more than some spoiled diva. Does this mean she and Sujal have got a shot at romance? Awwww… c’mon, it’s a Bollywood film, naturally that’s gonna happen…. hehehehe!! But first off, most everybody else has got to die…. and die horribly.

There isn’t a lot of gore here though…. much of what happens happens off screen. Part of that is because Hindi films tend to be far less graphic than western efforts, but much of it here is also very purposeful. “Agyaat” takes as it’s central premise the idea that it’s more what you don’t see that gets you to imagining the worst…. and it’s used very effectively here. Your Favorite Catgirl found this one very entertaining indeed, and with it’s nod to “Predator” and it’s lush scenery and solid cinematography, it’s a decent film that deserved better reviews back in India for trying to be something different than the usual crappy Hindi “song and dance” romances that comes out from the industry by the droves. It does this, and still manages to have a very Hindi feel to it that I found nice.

In conclusion, Neko gives this one a respectable 3 “Meows” out of 5 with several nice purrs for making a nice, polished and modern Hindi horror film I won’t be ashamed to recommend to friends. Even Carolyn liked it….. and she’s a hard one to sell with a subtitled film.

Trailer? Yep…. Neko’s got one for you…. so watch and decide for yourself… Horror movie or not?

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?

Well… the synopsis for this one reads as follows: “Rajeev, a successful construction engineer, lives happily with his aged mother, his lovely wife Aanjit and their two children aged 10 and 8. Rajeev is a hardcore aethist and scoffs at people who believe in black magic and evil forces. But all of this will change drastically when his life is shattered by the evil forces that put his loved ones to unspeakable horrors. His belief system that refused the very existence of these dark forces is left virtually in tatters.”

So… if you’ve watched a few Hindi films, you know what to expect right? Lots of singing and dancing sequences….. plot lines that seem to drag on like forever…. lots of extra junk thrown in just to confuse the story and pad things out to an excruciatingly long run time. Well, this lil catgirl is here to tell you, that just ain’t the case here…. thank goodness! Seems that director Ram Gopal Varma wanted to do a more “westernized” movie that might be more accepted worldwide….. and, as a result, it did very poorly in India upon it’s theatrical release. So much so that finding a DVD release has been darned near impossible for me. But your Favorite Catgirl is nothing if not downright determined when it comes to sniffing out her movie goodies.

This one is a pure gem for those wanting an Indian film that actually is enjoyable to a non-Indian viewer. The story, while simple, is easy to get a grip on…. it’s basically the old “Revenge through the use of the Black Arts” plot. There is an attempt to elevate this one by making the argument that all such supernatural elements are actually dependent upon the belief of those who are so influenced… but that message isn’t as heavy handed as to ruin the film.

Rajeev spends much of the film dismissing all the creepy Hindi  Voodoo/ Witchcraft curse elements that surround his little daughter’s strange ailment. His wife on the other hand is a firm believer in the Gods and she keeps trying to convince her husband that something terrible is afoot. Naturally he doesn’t want to listen…. so we get lots of nifty scenes of the little possessed girl doing all those crazy possessed things right out of any of that sort of “Exorcist” inspired genre.

There is a nifty evil crow that spends it’s time following the girl around and cawing ominously…. there’s a shady chauffeur that works for them that you just KNOW is up to something bad. There’s Rajeev’s elderly mom…. who knows all there is to know about the “old legends”… if only her thickheaded “modern” son would care to listen.

The horror elements are subdued…. as has been the trend in recent Hindi efforts, however the overall tone is appropriate for the genre and I found it balanced just about right. Not tooo scary…. not tooo dull or preachy…… and surprisingly easy to watch.

Perhaps the best element of “Phoonk” for me was the character of the Tantric Master…. a blind, twitchy and downright unnerving hermit right out of one of the old Ramsay Brothers films, who deserves a movie all his own. He’s got the mojo and he ain’t afraid to use it as he goes about slapping the mystic whammy on the evil witch behind it all. There’s a cool beheading here…. but unfortunately it’s been edited to reduce the shock factor and ends up just looking a bit schlocky and sooo, sooo fake.

Naturally, by the end of the film, our hero Rajeev has to reevaluate the existence of the Supernatural, and of course there’s the nice twist of his devout wife abandoning her pure belief for a new found respect for Science and Medicine. That about sums it up, without giving away toooo much of the plot.

Sooooo…. to wrap things up. Neko has to give “Phoonk” her firm 4 “Meows” out of 5, despite what the Hindi reviewers might say to the contrary. This is just the sort of film that should be made in India to help break the Hindi film industry into a more widely accepted worldwide market. While it’s not Oscar materiel nor groundbreaking or even terribly original from a storyline perspective, it actually does what a film should do. It entertains….. by telling a story, not by selling Music CD’s. It’s a bit hard to find outside of India…. but not impossible. Although it looks like Amazon might just have sold out on this one, the DVD ought to pop up on Ebay or somewhere accessible for those willing to look for it.

…….and c’mon….. it’s just soooo fun to say “Phoonk”! Hehehehee!!!

And yes…. as always, a nifty lil’ Trailer to put you in the mood.

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!!

So…let’s see, this one uses that tried and true old plot line you’ll recognize from about a gazillion other slasher films from the late 70′s and early 80′s, made anywhere, either with or without Zombies….

Lying to their parents about having an overnight “school trip”, five Pakistani teenagers are actually planning to drive across country to see a rock concert. First Big Mistake……

Taking a “shortcut” and getting lost, they stop off at a creepy tea shop in the middle of nowhere for some chai and snacks. Second Big Mistake……

There, they are warned by a weird shopkeeper (played by Rehan, the famous Pakistani Dracula in Mondo’s “The Living Corpse“) that if they continue being such impious Muslims, forsaking prayer, and continuing on this path, and they will find themselves in “Zibakhana” or Hell’s Ground and suffer for their Sins. Naturally, they completely ignore his warnings as the ravings of some goofy “old dude” and continue on their way. Last Mistake……

Unfortunately, as the result of the polluted rivers nearby, the countryside is overrun with crazed flesheating Zombies, lunatics, some psycho yogi, and an insane hulking killer dressed in a bloody burqua and armed with the usual collection of “Pointy Weapons of Dreadfully Painful Death”. Of course they have to run out of gas right in the middle of this Allah-forsaken place…..

One by one, they soon pay for their Sins….as the killer stalks them through the haunted countryside. Will any survive? Neko-chan knows you know the answer to that one…right?

If you were expecting something new and fresh in the horror genre from “Hell’s Ground”, then you’ve missed the whole point of the film. This one isn’t about breaking any new ground, it about celebrating a and reveling in the goofy conventions that made such films drive-in classics back in the day. Both Omar Ali Khan and Pete Toombs love these old films and it shows here….. Where “Hell’s Ground” truly shines is when you realize what an amazing accomplishment it was to make such a film today in Pakistan…. with practically no budget….. and have it come out so remarkably good. Neko tends to refer to much of the Bollywood/ Lollywood horror classics as “craptacular”…. and that’s usually being kind. This film is head and shoulders above any of it’s closest competitors made in the region.

If Neko has any quibble at all, it’s that the Zombies seemed so…. well….unnecessary to the plot at all. They just sorta are there…. there isn’t a lot of them, and the entire “pollution” subplot seems like it was something that the filmakers didn’t want to push very heavily for fear of provoking the Pakistani authorities…. Without them, there is still plenty of the bloody action needed for a film like this…. Maybe if they do a sequel we’ll get to see them rampage through the slums of Islamabad…….

The actors, all local talent, are very good and fit the material well. They give a very contemporary look to the youth of Pakistan, and don’t seem to be caricatures or lame attempts to “westernize” the staple roles of this sort of film at all. All of the favorites are here: The Rich Kid, the “Stoner” best friend, the “Baaad” girl, the “Good” girl and the Nerdy Guy with the “Secret Crush”….. all we need is “Scooby Doo”….(or should that be “Scooby Khan”?) to make things complete.

The spec for this release are as follows:

• NTSC Region 1
• Urdu and English Audio (Mixed language usage the way Hindi films do) with English Subtitles
• Anamorphic Widecreen
• Ice Cream Zombieland – featurette about director Omar Khan
• Zuj promo – pop promo made for the Pakistani rock singer Zuj
• LUMS Premiere – footage from the Pakistani premiere at LUMS

So in conclusion, Neko gives this one a firm 4 “Meows” out of 5 for being a nice homage to crazy old slasher/ zombie cinema made lovingly by people who remember how much fun such terrible, terrible films like this can be. Not only that, but it can be made in a part of the world that isn’t even knows for such films…. Bravo. (Psssst! And where can this lil’ Catgirl get one of those “Spikey Ball Thingees of Death”….soooo ridiculous and cool!!)

Of course…there’s a Trailer and here it is….courtesy of the good folk at Mondo Macabro…

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…….

Lets start with the synopsis….“Sudeep (Atul Kulkarni), an architect, lives with his wife Roshni (Rituparna Sengupta) and their daughter Shivani (Rushita Pandya). The family decides to go for a holiday to Mauritius, but .a spirit enters Shivani and she demands her parents to take her to their ancestral house in the village. The parents reluctantly agree after witnessing her tantrums. There the spirit takes over Shivani completely and Sudeep and Roshni don’t know what to do. It turns out that the spirit is none other than Gauri, the fetus which was aborted by Roshni when she and Sudeep were not ready to have a child some years earlier. Now she wants revenge on her parents. “

Sounds like a winner… but wait….. there’s a catch. Turns out this whole film is mostly a rant against the evils of abortion….. sigh….. instead of a actual horror film.

It isn’t even as scary as its nearest competitor for that particular niche, Turkey’s “Araf” either. There are no actual fatalities in this one at all….. except for poor Gauri the ghost/ baby/ spirit/ thingee…… and not even any close calls.

All the traditional lead-ups to real horror are present….. weird noises…. spirit possessions…… dark gloomy houses in the middle of nowhere…. even the obligatory thunderstorm to help set the mood.
But nothing here truly works…..

The story itself had promise…… but the family unit here is terrible….. I’m hoping real families aren’t like this in India. They spend most of their time whining at each other to get their own way….. they are overly obsessed with success and what it can buy….. not the most flattering view of family life.
Don’t even get me started on the whole “social message” on abortion….

Retuparna Sengupta and Atul Kulkarni are merely bearable in their roles, but I felt the houseboy, Beem Singh, played by Praanav had more charm. The only actor who impressed me was little Rushita Pandya as the dual role of Gauri/ Shivani, and who handled it with an amazingly effective bit of acting.

All in all….. this was a well executed film from a technical standpoint. This attempt to do it without the usual crutch used to make other Hindi films commercial was truly appreciated.

But….. Neko wishes they’d have put just a wee, lil’ bit more horror in their horror movie.

Neko-chan gives it a disappointing 2 “Meows” out of 5 and a shiver of annoyance for its preachy tone….. better luck next time India.

As always, I leave you with the trailer…. courtesy of our Youtube thingee, so you can catch a glimpse for yourself.

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”?

This one is a real hoot…. I’ve been trying to track down a copy of it for years with subtitles, and finally scored a disc direct from India….. unfortunately, it’s not the best quality disc I’ve ever seen… I believe it was originally mastered from a VCD, that was in turn originally mastered from VHS, that came from a very dog-eared print of the film itself…..you get the idea. Naturally, that means it was not the best quality you could hope for. I had been waiting for a rumored Mondo Macabro restoration of it that was supposed to come out as part of their “Hindi Horror Movie Collection Volume 2″…… unfortunately I read recently that they were unable to find an acceptable copy of the film to work with so that relese has been canceled. Bummer…….. it’s got it all. Evil yogi guys who worship demon idols….. weird coneheaded guys in an ancient crypt….. undead vampire cat witches…… troglodyte henchmen…… and a couple of singing, dancing sequences to make ya go “Huh?!?”

I really liked this one a lot…… and I’ve seen some truly “craptacular” stuff out of India. It stands head and shoulders above some of the other earlier efforts, and shows why the Ramsay Brothers were the Kings of Hindi Horror…. “Veerana” manages to transcend it’s cheesy sets, bad acting, and downright wacky and nearly incomprehensible Hindi plot to be a wonderful fantasy film that shows the best possible from Hindi fantasy filmaking in the 80′s. I only hope Mondo hasn’t given up looking for a copy of it to work with….a restoration would be a great thing to see happen. This lil’ Kitten says, “If you plan to sit through only one horror film from India, then make it this one….. you won’t be sorry.”

Neko-chan gives “Veerana” her most well deserved 4 “Meows” out of 5 for being an amazingly entertaining film from a place I don’t normally associate good films from……. (Doesn’t keep me from watching them though… Hehehehe!!!) I’d go a “Meow” higher but the woefully poor condition of the film and admittedly primitive production values steal that away.

So if you can, grab a copy before it disappears forever and becomes one of those “Lost Film Treasures” that can never be viewed again…..

Naturally…a lil’ digging found us the Trailer, courtesy of youtube…. .enjoy the Hindi horror hilarity…..