Ok so here’s the deal – if you’re looking for the classic 'spook+sleaze’ combo, this film might leave you cold. The promos lead you on to believe you’ll see something of a paranormal threesome—the promotional line in fact says - `They don’t know it yet. It’s a threesome.’ Sorry, the film is hardly that audacious. It’s a just a case of leading the viewer in with the bait of misplaced promotions.
A couple – Ragini and Uday – is spending their weekend at a deserted bungalow. Young and in lust, they get horizontal right away. The boyfriend is using a camcorder to record the girl from top to toe. There are other hidden cameras that the girl isn’t aware of – the idea is to make a sex tape. You abhor Uday immediately.
Amid the smooching and cuddling, there’s a doorbell. It’s just the couple of friends. You’re relieved but they beat a hasty retreat because one of the friends gets locked up and senses foulplay not realising that it is the ghost.
With them gone, our twosome is alone again in the bungalow. The third mysterious entity is shown in glimpses. This Marathi-speaking ghost (an interesting departure from the clichéd ghost representation) has a tragic backstory that is not delved into enough. This backstory needed to be told; it would make the film’s premise stronger. So we’re given no background of this ghost. Is the entity a witch as was suspected by her family or was she a victim of false belief?
The first half has scares because you have two people trapped in the bungalow, and one of them handcuffed to the bed! The handheld camera makes the viewer a voyeur much like in Paranormal Activity.
The second half gets gruesome with mysterious murders and bloodshed. Ragini’s journey as she tries escaping the bungalow is shot stylistically, and clearly influenced by films like "The Blair Witch Project".
The cast does well. Raj Kumar Yadav reprises his role (like in Love Sex Aur Dhoka) as the sleazy boyfriend looking to make a sex tape with his unsuspecting girlfriend. He’s excellent throughout and adds a comical dimension to his character when scared out of his wits. Kainaz Motivala (Wake up Sid, Paathshaala) does fairly well.
Debut director Pawan Kripalani whips up an assortment of LSD, Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project. It’s a supernatural 'flick’ that hopes to be yet another money-spinner banking on the usual thrills and chills.
However, with too many loose ends and an abrupt ending, this one neither scares you completely nor does it get you involved. Meant for the horror film junkie who can ignore these flaws and the repetitive pattern of the film for a few moments of scares.
'Ragini MMS', made on a shoe-string budget, is doing quite well at the Box Office. This is definitely a good enough reason for producer Ekta Kapoor to go ahead and make a sequel to the film.
