Unpalatable schizoid fantasy

FILM: Dobaara: See Your Evil

CAST: Saquib Saleem, Huma Quereshi, Lisa Ray. Adil Hussain

DIRECTOR: Prawaal Raman

Prawaal Raman’s official remake of the flop, tricky, Hollywood Horror plot-boiler Oculus originally written by Mike Flanagan and Jeff Howard, is both opportunistic and unremitting. Multiple timelines, supernatural power centres and crappy editing make this journey into terror one without much of an anchor to hold on to. Natasha Alex Merchant (Huma Quereshi) grows up with the sole objective of proving the supernatural power of the mirror that caused multiple murders – of her parents Alex (Adil Hussain) and Lisa (Lisa Ray) – which were blamed on her brother Kabir (Saquib Saleem), by the authorities, and since, he has been unjustly confined to jail for 10 years.

Oculus lost out on clarity even if it scored high on gore and revulsion. This desi remake has nothing much to offer. There’s no clarity in the storytelling, the crafting of it is terribly muddled and the performances too insignificant to matter much. Believability is zero here.

Prawaal Raman tries hard to insert some tense, hairy moments but the complicated telling becomes so wearisome that you can’t even be bothered to give it your attention.

The opportunistic casting of real-life broter-sister pair in the main roles may have given the film some good press but eventually it’s the way the movie unravels, that counts with an audience.

This one just doesn’t make sense. This is a schizoid nightmare that doesn’t have quite the right mechanics to come good. And it’s too wearisome to bother with!