Cast: Prabhu Deva, Tamannaah, Sonu Sood
Director: A.L. Vijay
What do you expect to see in a film that has Prabhu Deva in the lead? Whatever be the content, you’d surely want to see him dance, since that’s what he excels in. Instead director A.L. Vijay has a role for Deva in this scrappy, silly threadbare horror-comedy that has loutish jokes masquerading as humour. This much publicised “horror comedy” has neither any horror nor any comedy! Krishna (Prabhu Deva), who lives in Mumbai, is obsessed with marrying a city-bred girl, though he himself was born and raised in a village. But his destiny has a surprise for him when his grandmother on deathbed insists on seeing him married, and his father, even arranges several suitable matches for him. Just before breathing her last, she chooses a girl Devi (Tamannaah) much against his wishes. The two get married and the simple, obedient, duty-bound and docile Devi lands up with Krishna in Mumbai.
As they move into a spooky neglected apartment, they encounter strange occurrences. As if this wasn’t enough, one evening at a function, the demure Devi transforms completely into a defiant mini-skirt clad English speaking modern girl who even shakes a leg on stage with superstar Raj Khanna (Sonu Sood). Needless to add, Raj falls head over heels in love with Devi, who now calls herself Ruby. Around the same time, the specter of a house ghost rears its head. By the time realisation dawns on him that his wife — who alternates in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde like alternate personalities in Devi and Ruby — could be possessed by the spirit of Ruby: an aspiring actor who had committed suicide in the same apartment.
As Krishna gets an exorcist to drive out the evil spirit from his home, Raj decides to offer a three-film contract to Ruby who — as an alter ego to Devi — mesmerises everyone around. In reality, Ruby is merely a ghost who enters Devi’s body at will, to make her realise her dream. Funnily enough, while all the screenwriting punctuates plot twists to carry forward a mindless tale, Krishna is mistaken for Ruby’s manager, and is treated accordingly by Raj’s secretary too. Now if you are wondering how on earth Deva as Krishna is expected to juggle his role as a husband he never wanted to be, or his trying hard to unravel the mystery revolving around his wife, we too wait and try hard to figure out the developments. For viewers, there’s nothing worse than spending a festive season with a heartbreakingly bad movie.
Sure, most romantic comedies are predictable, unrealistic and corny. But some films are so bad, they’re actually good. These are the kind of films whose screenwriting, acting and developments are so unforgivable they leave you more embarrassed than entertained. Watching this horror-comedy evoked getting lost in a plot with too many possibilities of a story idea that goes bonkers with many unneeded variations. In trying to resolve loose ends in a weak storyline, the director falls flat. There may be a certain amount of mystery in the twisty narrative, but sitting through it there’s just as much frustration as well.
The writer is a film critic and has been reviewing films for over 15 years. He also writes on music, art and culture, and other human interest stories.
