Mallika Review

The Horror genre in India had shown us some glimmer of hope with the scary 13B, but all of the good work has been undone by this movie. Mallika is one of the worst movies of this year. Just like the actress of its namesake, this movie too shows a lot of skin. What can be said about a film in which every female character is shown in the shower or the bath tub in every few minutes? The story, if one could call it, that is as follows.

Sanjana (Sheena Nayyar) is troubled by nightmares of a murder that had taken place in the house she lives in. Life becomes hell for her so she decides to pack her bags and leave for a vacation. She lands up in Rajasthan at a fort which looks more haunted than her own house. The fort has a few residents staying there. Saahil (Sameer Dattani) is doing a research project on the fort, Vikram (Himanshu Mallik) is the caretaker and Maya (Pooja Ballutia) is his wife. The Fort also holds a sleazy photographer (Arjun Mahajan) and a police inspector (Suresh Menon).

At the fort, Sanjana sees a spirit of a woman who looks exactly like her. The wife of the caretaker, Maya and another of the hotel' s guest get murdered and thus begin the spate of murders that follow.

When horror film is the word, the first name that comes to mind is of the Ramsay Brothers. This movie looks like a typical Ramsay movie right down to the story. Haunted Mansion, woman in distress, spirit seeking revenge and reincarnation; all ingredients of a typical Bollywood B-grade horror film.

The movie is clichéd to the book and there is no unpredictability that might surprise the audience. One or two scenes do manage to scare a little but that' s about it. Some of the scenes that are meant to be scary actually make you laugh.

There are some movies that do not need a lot of special effects to scare the audience, but this is not one of them. Technically the movie is not up to the mark and is not helped by the weak script.

Performances are abysmal to say the least. Lead actress Sheena Nayyar shows more skin than acting talent, she seriously requires some acting lessons. While Sameer Dattani just goes through the motions. Himanshu Mallik is alright and the comedy track given to Suresh Menon is absurd.

The Direction of Wilson Louis is not that great and he has not succeeded in extracting good performances out of any of his actors. But he does manage to use some unique camera angles. The biggest problem of the movie is the script. There is absolutely no novelty to the story and feels like the story has been lifted from some old Ramsay movies.

Nothing works in the favor of the movie, even the timing of its release. The producers have chosen to release it alongside Karan Johar' s candy floss family drama We are a Family which will turn out to be the final nail its coffin.

The movie does not look that extravagant budget-wise and neither does it have any big stars, so there is a chance that the movie may be able to recover its production cost. But theatrical costs will not be recovered and the distributors of the movie will suffer losses.

Rating: *

Verdict: The movie is set loose big at the box-office, though it might work if the audience chooses to see it as a comedy movie.

Reviewed by: Harshal Anand.

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