What is it all about?
First of all, if you want to plagiarizes a Hollywood film, it’s a good idea to at least find one that did well in theaters. The makers of Warning, instead of lifting Adrift almost scene-by-scene, would have done better to copy its prequel-of-sorts, Open Water. But still Gurmeet Singh’s smart handling makes a decent thrill pill. A pulse riser that ships on sea adventures instead of hotels, house and villas of Bollywood.. Eros International, Alumbra Entertainment and Benaras Media Works Warning is intense and engrossing for those who have not seen such sea adventures, handling makes it a decent thrill pill.
The Story
This movie combines the Bollywood with the Hollywood danger movie atmosphere. When a gang of former school friends get together, you know that, Bollywood style, old battles will be re-enacted and some of them will probably throw each other overboard. When a group of people is going to shark-infested waters, Hollywood style, you know that either all of them will die, or only one or two will survive.
Criminal to call it a copy so better call it as an inspiration. Writers Rajesh Chawla and Tejpal Singh Rawat get influenced by the Hollywood 2006 thriller Open Water 2 (Adrift) helmed by Hans Horn. Where a joy ride on a luxury yacht through the middle of a beautiful ocean planed as a reunion of seven friends turns frightening as disaster strikes..
So, for some reason, all these people decide to get on a boat and go to Fiji on vacation. As in Adrift, the guy who says he owns the yacht turns out to be the biggest pretender of the lot. But you’ll know this anyway when his bikini babe (Suzana Rodrigues) shows up wearing almost nothing.
The characters are all stereotypes. Yacht-owner-guy; fat nice guy; rich brat; seductress; MILF. And seeing how bitter they feel about each other, All the friends neck deep in water, oblivious of their geographical coordinates, unknown miles away from land with no way to get back on to the yacht while little Sara cries incessantly on board..
What to look out for
First timer Gurmeet Singh does a decent job here.. he is a good narrator shoots the scene well. Gets great support from his technical team where Franz Pagot as the cinematographer does a superb job. Cheragh Todiwala cuts it rightly for the edgy feel.. there are some undeniably spine chilling moments that can bring the house down. Elaborating them will be a spoil sport. The emotional rift during the crises adds to the thrill and is manipulated well.
Performance are decent where Manjari Fadnis leads followed by Santosh Barmola, Jitin Gulati, Sumit Suri, Suzana Rodrigues, Madhurima Tuli and the funny Varun Sharma show honesty. The other positive thing about the film is some decent underwater camera work.
What not
The 3D effect is minimal. The 3D factor doesn’t add anything to the film, except for some thrills at the start. There is so much scope for it to be used well in the second half, but it’s done so tackily that you wish it had been a regular film. What was the point? It didn’t make any difference. Ideally the 3D effect should have boosted the thrill quotient but it was such a letdown. The disaster takes it own time to occur. The winding up was sudden. Some more thrills would have balanced the vacuum created by those unwanted songs.. an original plot could have being wonderful.