'Ragini MMS' is slightly scary & not at all sexy

Film: Ragini MMS (A)
Director: Pankaj Kripalani
Cast: Kainaz Motivala, Raj Kumar Yadav
Rating: **1/2

What happens when The Blair Witch Project meets Paranormal Activity and both travel to Bollywood to meet Ekta Kapoor? The answer is Ragini MMS.

Uday (Yadav) forces his way into people’s homes, tramples upon his girlfriend’s bed, and when she refuses to wake up so they can be on their way to Dahanu for a ‘dirty weekend’, he doesn’t shy away from splashing a bottle of water on her. “You jerk,” yells Ragini (Motivala) but joins Uday on the trip to Dahanu nonetheless.

You instantly hate Uday, who loads up on condoms like one would load up on candy while going on a camping trip (a bit ambitious too, come to think of it) and snarls at Ragini when she suggests they join her friends in Matheran instead of going to Dahanu.

Motivala brings out Ragini’s innocence, but the fact that she carries inexpensive, bordering-on-sexy lingerie on a 'dirty weekend' shows she is bold enough to want to explore her sexuality. And she is no dumb girl who agrees to be taped by her boyfriend. When the make-out session starts, she coyly reminds Uday about the camera and waits until he switches it off.

Uday, however, has a backup. A set of hidden cameras are already going to tape their rendezvous. But it’s not just these cameras that are watching them. As the night progresses, tharkee Uday’s plans get delayed. Then, when he feels that something is amiss, Uday transforms into a bheegi billi who shamelessly clings to Ragini as the ghost (a Marathi-speaking one at that) shakes things up for them.

Will the couple manage to escape the bhoot bangla? Will Uday get to make the MMS and launch his Bollywood career?

The first half of the film has its moments of stupidity and the handy-cam coupled with shadow play and a gripping background score induces some chills down the spine. But the film takes its own sweet time to get to the bhoot/sex parts that were heavily promoted in its build-up. In the second half, though the ghost makes its appearance felt with its voice muttering ‘Mee chetkin nahee (I am not a witch)', it gets repetitive after a point.

In the second half, the director builds an impressive pace and it seems like the film is at its climax, but then the narrative slumps and the ghost, complete with a nath and nauvaari saree to go with the Marathi lines, stops being scary. In fact, the absence of the ghost creates the scary moments.

Ragini MMS doesn’t have a very profound or a hatke story to tell. The director tries to couple a social horror story with a paranormal horror story to create an interesting offering.

Ragini MMS is not a sexual film as the promos make it out to be, but it manages to be scary in parts. It is just a regular horror story presented in an innovative fashion by using a six-camera set-up, offering you glimpses into different parts of the bungalow. If you are too chicken to watch Paranormal Activity or The Blair Witch Project, Ragini MMS is a good crash course through both.