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Reply 34# alifsue2020
This review here sums it all up http://twitchfilm.net/reviews/20 ... w-aka-mea-culpa.php
Hisss features Irfan Khan, who is probably one of the best Indian actors working today. Not only is he good in Hindi films, but you can also find him in quality international productions like The Darjeeling Limited, The Namesake, The Warrior, Slumdog Millionaire, etc. He puts in a low-key but convincing performance for about 80% of the movie. You can almost see in his eyes the moment that he realizes what he's gotten himself into with this wreck of a film. Khan plays a police detective who is assigned to homicide and following what he believes to be a serial killer with a particular taste for using cobra venom on his victims. He is married to Maya, played, also somewhat convincingly, by Divya Dutta. There is a subplot involving their home life, infertility, and a senile mother-in-law; this part of the film is probably the most worthwhile. The actors, including, I shit you not, a real live princess, Laxmi Bal Nalapat, as the senile mom, create a realistic home and a situation that anyone dealing with aging and deteriorating parents can relate to if only a little. Sure, Irfan leaves his wife in the bathroom after she's had a miscarriage to go to work as she cries and bleeds all over the place, but he loves her and she immediately forgives him. Sure Laxmi Bal Nalapat reminds us of a kindlier, less infantile version of Pink Flamingos' Egg Lady, but she's charming as all hell. I couldn't understand the dialogue, but there appeared to be some genuinely funny and warm moments in their apartment, judging by the reactions of my fellow film-goers.
The other thing I liked about Hisss was something I was pretty excited for, the practical effects. After watching Robert Kurtzman's video diaries of the process involved in creating Hisss' special effects, I was fairly confident that this would be a strength of the film, and for the most part, it is. I think I can safely say that there have never been creature effects of this caliber in an Indian film. The transformation sequences are American Werewolf-esque, and the gore, especially the aftermath money shots and sequences in the coroner's office, are very well executed. Kurtzman's team does a great job with the practical effects most of the time, but when the effects falter on a film like this, it can drag the whole thing to a screeching halt. At one point, a victim of Sherawat's naagin appears to have leftover udon noodles and ketchup dumped ON TOP of his shirt to indicate being disemboweled. Terrible stuff. There is one other really embarrassing practical effects piece, but I think it deserves a place of its own on the cons list.
Really, that's about all I have to say that is good about this film. Yup. That about does it.
Now, onto the failures. I'll get to as many as I can, but I don't want to overwhelm you.
The film begins with a ridiculously terrible English voiceover explaining the legend of the naagin, a snake goddess who will do anything to protect her mate, including taking human form to reap her vengeance. The voiceover is garish, crude, soulless, and crazy loud. The loudness is something you kind of get used to when you go to see a lot of Indian films, but for some reason it was more grating because it was in English.
Immediately following this simplistic bit of exposition, we are thrown in with the American, George, a crazed, brain-cancered, delirious, thuggish, cartoonish villain of the film who is apparently stricken by cancer and the inability to modulate his voice, because he shouts. Everything. Asian and South Asian films have a long history of cartoonish white villains, and Jeff Doucette's "George", ranks somewhere near the bottom as far as convincing ones go. His speech is stilted, he looks dazed for most of the film, and yet we're supposed to believe that he is able to control a small band of thugs who, despite their own paralyzing fears of the naagin, will do his bidding pretty much blindly? He's dying guys, you can run away. Hell, you could probably walk away as he stumbles. Frankensteinishly after you. [editorial note: my spell check did NOT mark the word, "Frankensteinishly" as incorrect, it must be learning...] His performance is awful, just terrible. Think Grandpa in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but without the subtlety.
Then there is Mallika Sherawat. Mallika, you had me, hook, line, and sinker. All that enthusiastic chatter on Twitter, I bought it. All of the publicity; visiting snake worshipers, bringing that big ass snake to Cannes, spending day and night promoting your movie... You got me. You have my $8 and I'll never get my two hours back, so you win.
Sherawat plays the snake goddess, naagin. The naagin has been alive for at least 4,500 years, if the prologue to the film is accurate, but has never left her jungle. When her mate is stolen, she transforms into a human, a very attractive and not very shy one, to find him and punish the man who took him away. Mallika knows how to slither, I'll give her that, but that is about all. Her character, after becoming human, walks up to EVERYTHING in the civilized world and inspects it like she is an infant, think Jodie Foster in Nell, but without the talent. She wears the costumes and appliances well, and the does the shedding and transformation scenes fairly well, but any time she is called on to act, it is a disaster. Her idea of acting is popping her eyes as wide as they'll go, arching her back, and whipping her head around like Stevie Wonder in a wind tunnel. Luckily for us, she has not a word of dialogue for the entire duration of the film. She grunts a few times, but that is about it.
My comments - The blood looks so FAKE. The color is like those paints Along splashed onto debtor's wall. |
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Post time 20-10-2010 04:19 PM
