Cast: Sheena Nayar, Sameer Dattani, Himanshu Mallik, Rajesh KheraDirector: Wilson Louis
Producer: Percept Picture Company
Music: Pritam Chakraborty
Rating: *1/2
'Mallika', directed by Wilson Louis, who is known for making horror thrillers, is another exhausting piece of the done-and-dusted tale on the angry spirit who chooses someone as an intermediate to take her revenge. The film promises to bring 'a new face of fear...and beauty' but ends up completely defacing it by adding more comedy and ugliness in an attempt to beautify it.
Horrifying nightmares and gross visions of the murder that took place years before she moved into her house, keep haunting Sanjana (Sheena Nayar). To find an escape from these she decides to go on a vacation to the secluded Khejarta fort in Rajasthan with her boyfriend Sahil, who is a creative director at an advertising agency. Little does she know that the dream will chase and find her again to witness the dark secret of the fort which was originally owned by Mallika. The story from here till the end, not without a few deaths of course, is an answer to why Mallika chased Sanjana.
This film introduces a new beauty, Sheena Nayar, in the role of Sanjana, who is an egotist but with a tender heart within. Her boyfriend Sahil is played by Sameer Dattani, the only actor who manages to come up with a decent performance in the film. All others are just below average. Though there are actors like Suresh Menon (as PK Girpade) and Himanshu Mallik – their talents are wasted.
The movie has a hackneyed plotline of spirits chasing the person with a good soul to tell their story. All this is accompanied by truly atrocious dialogues of almost all the characters, especially when it comes to inspector PK Girpade who kills it whenever he opens his mouth. It is aptly put in the movie itself that both the policemen look 'Police kam joker jyada'. The second half has its share of horrifying moments but it tends to get monotonous after a point.
The cinematography is just average. The creeping motion of the camera plays a pretty effective role in creating terror in the audience's mind but then again, Louis should have used more of 'silence' as a tool to develop a sense of impending doom, instead of using loud background score which was just too much noise to tell that 'the ghost is here'. It simply gets frustrating at times. A few fast cuts at several places would have helped the scary moments to promise a terrifying spectacle instead of a very predictable doom.
There are other flaws in the script which makes things a lot funnier. For instance, when black magician Chander uses his paranormal powers to find out what had happened to Mallika, he tells everyone about it and says 'she will kill everyone who is characterless'. And mind it, he is the third one to die after that! Most of the scenes start and end in the bathtub perhaps with an intention to titillate the audience, but then the best of them are there in the promos.
The ghost frequently makes an appearance in Sanjana's dream to make sure that she knows how Mallika died, but in the end she chooses Sahil to take her revenge and makes sure that there are other things for the audience to laugh at! Towards the end, Sanjana narrates this part and says "None of us knows why that happened!" None of you will either.
Though Wilson Louis is well known for making horror thrillers, this one might hasten the demise of his credit. There is nothing fresh in the movie except for Sheena Nayar and rose petals in the bathtub. Go for it if you are desperate to watch a horror film rather than the other boring releases this week.
By Abhishek Pandey / Sanskriti Media & Entertainment
