Movie Review : Aagah The Warning

Comments [ 3 ] By Rishitu Amarnani | 05 August 2011 | 1:17pm

There are films you watch and instantly fall in love with wanting to watch it again. Then there are films you watch and restrict yourself to watching it that one time never repeating it again. And then there are films which give you such a headache that you repent even entering the theatre for it. Aagah – The Warning doesn't come in any of those categories. Instead, it comes in a category where while watching the film you feel like hunting down the maker of the film and doing the most horrible things possible to him, torturing him even further for making such a torturous film you had to go through. Yes, Aagah – The Warning is that pathetic!

An innocent boatman Ramsharan (Karan Razdan) is captured on high seas by the terrorists and is shot down by the leader of the jihadis Azaan Khan (Atul Kulkarni). Ramsharan's family in the village consisting of his father Devsharan (Satish Kaushik), mother Dulariben (Ila Arun) wife Megha (Rituparna Sen) and daughter Muskaan (Jannat) , they all grieve the death of Ramsharan. Muskaan has a lot of innocent questions about her father death. Later on, a spirit begins to haunt Muskaan. The dead are trying to reach out to her. Why? Why is someone dead trying to reach out to her and her family. The Nawab of the district (Zakir Hussein) takes a keen interest in the family. A Moulana (Anang Desai) tries to help the Sharan family. He introduces them to Peer Jammatuddin Shah Baba (Anupam Kher). The Peer fakir tries to exorcise the spirit from Muskaan being but he fails. A strange thing happens one night. The spirit attacks, but the family fights back. The spirit escapes through the chimney. But the strange part is that the spirit has written something on the wall. But it's in ancient Urdu. Which even the maulana can't read. Whose spirit is it? Is it an ancient spirit? What is it trying to say or do?

My only question is, why? Why make such a product?! Nothing works for the film! The only good (if you could dare to use that adjective after watching the film) factor about the movie is Atul Kulkarni, Jannat Zuber, Satish Kaushik and Anupam Kher's performances. Firstly, the film is extremely overdramatic and loud. It has even beat Ram Gopal Verma in using torturous background music. Even in sorrowful scenes like those involving death, you just don't feel sorry for them. The boatman's family's after-death crying saga just goes on and on. It never ends! Considering the movie has actually given the ghost a colour – white, it reminded me of the washing powder Tide's ads. Also, everyone dying in the film just has to say 2 – 3 dialogues before dying. What's that? Are we doing a film from the 80's? Also, their family seems to be the only family in the whole village most of the time. Why, were the junior artists so expensive? Plus, Rituparna Sen Gupta's hands seem to be more powerful than any weapon in the world! Considering, she could actually prevent the ghost to enter her daughter's body with just her bare hands! Absolutely ridiculous!

By the end of the film where the actual message is delivered, even if you're still in the audience, you just don't care. Who lives, who dies, and who's the ghost, whatever! It's a nice message being suggested in the end, but the movie doesn't even keep you interested for the first 20 minutes, forget about doing so till the end.

Director Karan Razdan should be proud of at least making some mark in Bollywood by making one of the worst Bollywood movies of all time. The screenplay is not even worth mentioning. The editing is terrible, scenes start from nowhere in between. At times, you won't even realize when the next scene has started. Terrible! The cinematography is okay.

Coming to the performances, Jannat Zuber, Atul Kulkarni, Satish Kaushik and Anupam Kher are the best. Rituparna Sen overacts so bad that you wish she either takes an acting class right away, or quit the industry! Ila Arun is a pain! When she shouts, you wish you were deaf.

Overall, there's nothing to say about this film. It's an absolute waste of effort, time and money. The writer and director of the movie Karan Razdan says 'The film is born out of plain. The film, although a supernatural thriller, cries out for peace and compassion for human suffering.' I do understand the crying out for human suffering part (especially in Ila Arun and Rituparna Sen's torturous scenes) and am sure he meant born out 'for' pain! And let's not even go to the apparently being a 'supernatural thriller' part. In short, Warning: Don't watch it!