2.5 stars
RAGINI MMS 2, the follow-up of 2011's sleeper hit RAGINI MMS, kicks off precisely from where the prequel culminated. After the uncanny death of Uday (Rajkummar Rao), Ragini (Kainaz Motivala) is admitted to Rane mental asylum. She's still in possession of the witch. The incident catches the fancy of Rocks (Parvin Dabas), a film director by profession and he decides to make a movie on the MMS, casting Sunny Leone, playing herself in the movie, to portray the part of Ragini. The entire cast and crew shift their base to the same sequestered villa where the MMS scandal materialized, to shoot for the movie. What follows is an overabundant dose of skin show entangled with cliched scares and an unsparing backstory of the witch........
Though the imagination of the writers are not roundly original but the story (Suhani Kanwar & Tanveer Bookwala) is way more perspicuous than the first chapter. The elements of horror & sex -- horrex, are tightly interwoven to keep the viewers hooked. What compliments the story is the eerily state-of-the-art production design (Sunil Nigvekar), murky lighting in the night sequences, brill vfx (Futureworks Media Pvt. Ltd.) and atrocious make-up. Spine-tingling! There is zilch predictability factor going on in its favor as well. The DoP (Naren Gedia), without using tilted camera angles or compact close-ups, captures the freakish mood of the narration with dexterity. Bravo! Bhushan Patel (director) seems to have mastered the art of flaunting the conventional horror tropes after 1920: Evil Returns (2012). He's in supreme command consummately. The abiding fear elements from the last edition -- secluded stately home, creaking doors/windows and sinister environ -- are enough to get the tempo going for this film, sprinkled with foot-tapping songs (music: Yo Yo Honey Singh, Meet Bros Anjjan, Pranay Rijia and Chirantan Bhatt) and yowling voiceovers. The heavy petting shower scene and much-talked-about smooch between Sunny & Sandhya Mridul are bound to titillate the hoi polloi. The costumes (Ami Patel) are trendy and aptly exalt the 'Adults Only' mood of the narrative. In a scene where Sunny Leone parodies herself and fakes an orgasm, is spellbinding. The first half is a skit, taken in good humor, where the muddled incident starts getting clarified which in turn, acts as catalyst for the relentless second half. The intricate climax, though being blatantly ripped off of The Conjuring (2013), is honest-to-goodness according to the Indian sensibilities and is not cliche-ridden. Clocking on the dot at 119 minutes, the editing (Tushar Shivan) never falters, which is rare in Bollywood movies. The movie doesn't succumb to the curse of second half, which itself is coup de maître.
Besides a riveting storyline, the film merely seems to be cashing in on the context of its prequel but falls flat in frightening the pants off the viewers with background score (Amar Mohile) acting as an earsore, throughout. Parikshit Lalwani and Kunal Mehta's sound design is a bummer. There isn't anything virgin to compliment the scare quotient. Being a horror affair, the flick is a *complete let-down* in terms of providing scares, which the trailer promised a gogo. The dialogues (Ishita Moitra) too, are showy but cheap and of poor quality. Take this for instance: Porno Se Rituporno Kaise Ban Gayi. The witch, after possessing Sunny in the climax, is talking dirty. Glaikit!
Aadore Mukherjee Mehra (casting director) has achieved a casting coup of sorts. Playing oneself in a movie doesn't seem to be much of a problematic task for Sunny Leone and after having watched her brilliance onscreen, I must admit the fact that she's quite a revelation, especially the way she's mastered Hindi and going by her assignments in Bollywood. One cannot take her eyes off from the Junoesque woman. She carries off the flick on her petite shoulders all by herself -- right from flaunting her curves uninhibitedly to exhibiting a stellar act in the climax. Attagirl! Her act is at par with her contemporaries in Bollywood. Well Done! Parvin Dabas (impeccable), Saahil Prem (brilliant), Sandhya Mridul (sultry to the core), Karan Mehra (A1) Anita Hasanandani (wasted...almost) and Divya Dutta (predictable).
On the whole, RAGINI MMS 2 is way more explicit than its antecedent but lacks the thrill, the scare quotient to raise the bar of horror genre. Sunny's to a T act and the generous dose of skin show are the saving grace of the flick but that's not worth the full measure. It's the viewers carte blanche to watch the movie or not. Que sera sera, if watching this movie is a must for you.
first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com/movies/ragini-mms-2/md2017.htm
RAGINI MMS 2, the follow-up of 2011's sleeper hit RAGINI MMS, kicks off precisely from where the prequel culminated. After the uncanny death of Uday (Rajkummar Rao), Ragini (Kainaz Motivala) is admitted to Rane mental asylum. She's still in possession of the witch. The incident catches the fancy of Rocks (Parvin Dabas), a film director by profession and he decides to make a movie on the MMS, casting Sunny Leone, playing herself in the movie, to portray the part of Ragini. The entire cast and crew shift their base to the same sequestered villa where the MMS scandal materialized, to shoot for the movie. What follows is an overabundant dose of skin show entangled with cliched scares and an unsparing backstory of the witch........
Though the imagination of the writers are not roundly original but the story (Suhani Kanwar & Tanveer Bookwala) is way more perspicuous than the first chapter. The elements of horror & sex -- horrex, are tightly interwoven to keep the viewers hooked. What compliments the story is the eerily state-of-the-art production design (Sunil Nigvekar), murky lighting in the night sequences, brill vfx (Futureworks Media Pvt. Ltd.) and atrocious make-up. Spine-tingling! There is zilch predictability factor going on in its favor as well. The DoP (Naren Gedia), without using tilted camera angles or compact close-ups, captures the freakish mood of the narration with dexterity. Bravo! Bhushan Patel (director) seems to have mastered the art of flaunting the conventional horror tropes after 1920: Evil Returns (2012). He's in supreme command consummately. The abiding fear elements from the last edition -- secluded stately home, creaking doors/windows and sinister environ -- are enough to get the tempo going for this film, sprinkled with foot-tapping songs (music: Yo Yo Honey Singh, Meet Bros Anjjan, Pranay Rijia and Chirantan Bhatt) and yowling voiceovers. The heavy petting shower scene and much-talked-about smooch between Sunny & Sandhya Mridul are bound to titillate the hoi polloi. The costumes (Ami Patel) are trendy and aptly exalt the 'Adults Only' mood of the narrative. In a scene where Sunny Leone parodies herself and fakes an orgasm, is spellbinding. The first half is a skit, taken in good humor, where the muddled incident starts getting clarified which in turn, acts as catalyst for the relentless second half. The intricate climax, though being blatantly ripped off of The Conjuring (2013), is honest-to-goodness according to the Indian sensibilities and is not cliche-ridden. Clocking on the dot at 119 minutes, the editing (Tushar Shivan) never falters, which is rare in Bollywood movies. The movie doesn't succumb to the curse of second half, which itself is coup de maître.
Besides a riveting storyline, the film merely seems to be cashing in on the context of its prequel but falls flat in frightening the pants off the viewers with background score (Amar Mohile) acting as an earsore, throughout. Parikshit Lalwani and Kunal Mehta's sound design is a bummer. There isn't anything virgin to compliment the scare quotient. Being a horror affair, the flick is a *complete let-down* in terms of providing scares, which the trailer promised a gogo. The dialogues (Ishita Moitra) too, are showy but cheap and of poor quality. Take this for instance: Porno Se Rituporno Kaise Ban Gayi. The witch, after possessing Sunny in the climax, is talking dirty. Glaikit!
Aadore Mukherjee Mehra (casting director) has achieved a casting coup of sorts. Playing oneself in a movie doesn't seem to be much of a problematic task for Sunny Leone and after having watched her brilliance onscreen, I must admit the fact that she's quite a revelation, especially the way she's mastered Hindi and going by her assignments in Bollywood. One cannot take her eyes off from the Junoesque woman. She carries off the flick on her petite shoulders all by herself -- right from flaunting her curves uninhibitedly to exhibiting a stellar act in the climax. Attagirl! Her act is at par with her contemporaries in Bollywood. Well Done! Parvin Dabas (impeccable), Saahil Prem (brilliant), Sandhya Mridul (sultry to the core), Karan Mehra (A1) Anita Hasanandani (wasted...almost) and Divya Dutta (predictable).
On the whole, RAGINI MMS 2 is way more explicit than its antecedent but lacks the thrill, the scare quotient to raise the bar of horror genre. Sunny's to a T act and the generous dose of skin show are the saving grace of the flick but that's not worth the full measure. It's the viewers carte blanche to watch the movie or not. Que sera sera, if watching this movie is a must for you.
first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com/movies/ragini-mms-2/md2017.htm
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