‘Ragini MMS 2’


Ragini MMS 2 is a Bollywood film directed by Bhushan Patel and co produced by Ekta Kapoor, and Shobha Kapoor under Balji Motion Pictures and ALT Entertainment. The Movie is the sequel to the 2011 Released film Ragini MMS. The film also features Saahil Prem, Divya Dutta, Parvin Dabas, Karan Mehra and Kainaz Motivala in supporting roles.

At least the first “Ragini” film gave us a sparkling performance by Rajkummar Rao, then called Yadav. This was the time when Rajkummar’s Shahid was not even conceived. Rajkummar Rao dragged his girlfriend to a haunted house to shoot a dirty MMS with her. In this instalment, there is an over-the-top film director (the talented Praveen Dabas) who wants to make a ‘horrex’ (a blend of horror and sex, much the same as the director of “Ragini MMS 2”) .

Part One was the story of a young couple, Ragini and Uday, who spend a weekend in a haunted house. The second one starts with Ragini in an asylum and a filmmaker Rock (Pravin Dabbas) wanting to make a ‘horrex’ film (horror + sex) based on her life with Sunny Leone in the lead role.

The script has been tailored to accommodate the lewd…sorry, lead’s porn backdrop.So when the film crew visits the same haunted house where the first “Ragini” film unfolded (why make the same mistake twice?!), Sunny, all voluptuous and popping all over the place, fakes an orgasm and tells an obnoxious fellow actor that porn actresses too can act.

What did I come away with from “Ragini MMS 2”? A sinking feeling that the horror genre has run its course. Boredom is a beast that director Bhushan Patel is not up to fighting. Sex is brought in to liven up the semi-dead spirits. Steamy scenes are stuffed into this scare-fest since Sunny Leone top-lines the cast.

They sure can. Sunny, in her third Bollywood film, puts in quite an effort to look possessed by an evil ‘chudail’. To be fair to this fornicating fraulein on an image-mending binge, the last half-hour finds her going into convulsions of terror. It’s a climactic performance that pines to tell us that porn stars can act.

Point made. Sunny is always good with climaxes. We can now move to the rest of the film which slithers through the hall of absurdity with a terrifying nonchalance. More importantly, the film’s leading lady (Leone) is in top form. Again, this isn’t an exaggeration. Be it dancing, taking pot shots at her own self or emoting, Leone has definitely made some progress. The oomph factor is, and will always be, there. But the fact that she has ‘researched’ on her role is a refreshing change. We have characters deliberately moving deeper and deeper into the darkest shadows of the haunting house inviting sure death.If you are so dumb as to go into empty rooms with creaky doors, then you might as well be dead.

Why are the characters in our horror films so intellectually challenged? “Ragini MMS 2” is specially suffused with morons. There is a hammy television actor who takes a naked shower with Sunny (once a porn star) and then later jerks off in bed. He is so gross because guys in the “Ragini” series are destined to be just that.

Really! Is this the way directors talk to their leading ladies while making ‘horrex’ films? No wonder the Ramsays were savagely pulled up in Ashim Ahluwalia’s “Miss Lovely”.

The first has a whacko director wants to shoot a ‘horrex’ (horror + sex) movie in the haunted house whose last victim was Ragini (Kainaaz Motivala in a cameo). He sets off with his crew to the place and strange things start happening thereafter. There’s a parallel track featuring a psychiatrist (Divya Dutta) who likes taking on weird cases. The two tracks palpably meet in an elaborate climax scene.

“Ragini MMS 2” is so enamoured by its luscious leading lady’s lusty past that it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Neither horrifying nor sexy, the film is like a conflicted schizophrenic seeking a closure to his identity crisis blocking out the sunlight from all the windows in his home and running around in circles all over his darkened home.

Watching “Ragini MMS 2” is like playing Russian Roulette with the lights off. You know someone is pulling the trigger and trying to fire random shots at unidentified victims. Every trick from the horror genre is brought into use. By the time Divya Dutta is brought in as the latest avatar of Max von Sydow from “The Exorcist”, the devil is too far gone to be tamed.

There are a few really spooky scenes. The one where Sunny meets Ragini in the asylum, the shooting scene where Sandhya Mridul is turned upside down, the pre-interval scene, the one where the assistant director (Anita Hassanandani) meets her end and the climax are all quite well shot.

On the flip side there is the forced romantic track between Sunny and the writer (Saahil Prem), complete with a song. Also forced into the narrative is the much hyped lip-lock between Sunny and Sandhya, a totally unnecessary scene this.

As regards the performances, Sunny puts in a much improved effort; Sandhya Mridul’s caricature act of playing a C grade starlet gets annoying after a while, Divya Dutta’s doctor act falls through in the climax when she, like every other catalyst in a horror film resorts to chanting some mantras to resolve the possession. Karan Mehra, who plays the television star, is delectable.
Despite the inspiration from Western horror shows and films, Patel manages to make those scenes his own. Those wanting to see Sunny in all her splendor and ‘more’ won’t be disappointed!
Surprisingly Leone manages to show a spark of brilliance in a scene where she parodies herself and fakes an orgasm! The idea of letting her play herself as opposed to someone else works in the film’s favour.

And I don’t mean the chudail in this film.

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