A Sonnet of Heresy

Agyaat: No scare, but enough entertainment
originally published in AOL.in

Cast: Priyanka Kothari, Nitin Reddy, Gautam Rode, Rasika Duggal, Ishteyak Khan, Ishrat Ali, Ravi Kale, Howard Rosmever, Kali Prasad Mukherjee, Joy Fernendes

Director: Ram Gopal Varma

Background Music: Amar Mohile

Cinematography: Surjodeep Ghosh

Rating: **1/2



If there is one person in the industry who could purely signify ‘you hate him or you like him, but you can’t ignore him’, then that has to be Ram Gopal Varma. He is one director who will ensure a reaction even with the bleakest prospects – be it his finds like Priyanka Kothari or bluffs like ‘RGV Ki Aag’. And this time it is with ‘Agyaat’.

Even after being in the thriller-horror genre, ‘Agyaat’ fails to scare you by any bit. There is not a single moment where you would fear from watching what is ahead. ‘Agyaat’ is rather only a thriller. It does not bore – not except for a prolonged introduction to the scare factor. The camera feasts on Priyanka Kothari’s figure till then – and that is no delight anymore. Seen enough of it! The first half, hence, gets a little off mark, but the second half catches pace – bringing around an array of human characters to fore as the danger looms on their heads. While some try saving others, some are busy blaming everyone else. And some are just concerned about themselves. In real life too, many a time it is not the actually predator that kills but the fear that does. Ramu brings that out well. He also gets in a dose of humour in gloomy situations by playing with fear.

The movie is a story of film crew which gets into a jungle to shoot a film. The unit has its fights and love stories. Things are okay till they decide to go further into the jungle for some entertainment. Just then people start getting killed, the guide being the first victim. And there is no way out. At least not that the rest know of.

What works superbly well

for ‘Agyaat’, as is already seen in promos, is the cinematography. Working on a film camera does have its restriction keeping in mind it’s a hefty piece of equipment. But Surjodeep Ghosh does a great job of working on queer angles to create fear. Also background music by Amar Mohile is very efficient and not loud.

‘Agyaat’ is not bad. Not when we have a ‘Blair Witch Project’ as a reference point. That is the film which is said to have inspired this drama. But then Ramu tries to push his luck and humour a little too far. The movie ends in a rather questionable manner, finishing all the thrill and fear that it could have created in people’s minds. Come on Ramu, ‘Coming soon... Agyaat 2’ is not the best way of ending the film, so what if it’s a cool way of declaring the sequel! The screenplay of the film could be panned, but then coming to the reference point – ‘Blair Witch Project’ didn’t have much of it too. These movies are more of a race, and asking for innovative screenplay could be asking for too much! By the way, ‘Blair Witch Project’ happens to be one of the highest grossing movies ever made – internationally. It was earlier poorly replicated in a 2007 Bollywood film ‘Chhodon Naa Yaar’, which featured Jimmy Sheirgill.

Priyanka Kothari, surprisingly, does pretty okay and Nitin Reddy is fine. The rest of the cast do well to carry the fear element in the film.

Overall, ‘Agyaat’ scares only the cast of the film that is being made in it. Audiences definitely are not going to bat an eye-lid. As said earlier, it does thrill you though. ‘Agyaat’ stands, though not st rongly, as an entertainer. You could give it a try.