Producer: Ram Gopal Varma,  K Sera Sera
Director: Prawaal Raman
Cast: Sanjay Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Nana Patekar, Aftab Shivdasani, Esha Deol, Sohail Khan, Antra Mali, Sameera Reddy
Music: Salim Suleman

This season treat yourself with something very different with RGV’s presentation ‘Darna Mana Hai’. Director Prawaal Raman treads an unexplored territory with this film. After watching it you’ll have to agree that it indeed is a bold attempt from the filmmaker who has taken care of his creative sensibilities while making the film without thinking about the business prospect. Why I say so? Because it is one such different film that may not get digested very well by all segment of movie buffs as it breaks away from the mould of formulaic stuff. Again it will depend on your preference to watch something sheer different or walk straight away into the film calling it rubbish.

It all starts one dark chilly night. Six friends get stranded when their car breaks down while crossing a jungle on their way back home. They decide to spend the night in an abandoned ruin, light a bonfire and began chatting. For the sake of time pass and to get through the night they begin telling stories about ghosts that they have heard or have encountered. This follows six bizarre and terrifying tales that play on the minds of the youngsters. But none of them know that they are also a part of a story that will soon come to an end. There is no escaping, no hiding from death for them.

Story 1: Sohail Khan and Antara Mali a married couple gets stuck in the middle of a forest as their car run bad. Sohail goes to fetch water and when he doesn’t return for long, his wife starts getting some hallucinations that he is dying. But soon he returns to resume their journey. Only the rear view mirror where his image doesn’t get reflected reveals that what she has dreamt was not false and now she is making a journey with a ghost.

Story 2: Saif Ali Khan is a photographer who goes to an inn on his route to Mumbai to spend the night there. Here he comes across an eccentric owner-manager-house keeper Boman Irani. Boman is very much against cigarette and stand people who smoke and Saif is a smoker. So to change his way, Boman changes the man itself.

Story 3: Raghuvir Yadav is a schoolteacher who is in a dilemma due to a peculiar student in his class. She is a little girl who never does her homework and gets punished and caned every day by him. And then one day she becomes the brightest student. What’s the story behind it?

Story 4: A housewife Shilpa Shetty buys very luscious apples for very cheap price from a weird vendor Rajpal Yadav. She treats her husband with it. And the next day what she sees she cannot believe her eyes.  

Story 5: One day Nana Patekar stands outside a graveyard as he waits for a ride to the city. A youngster Vivek Oberoi offers him a lift. All through the journey Nana claims that he is a ghost and tries many ways to convince Vivek that he is a spirit. Vivek doesn’t believe him and after getting irritated with the stunts, he shows Nana something that he has never seen before. Behind his glasses he has hollow eyes.
 
Story 5: Aftab Shivdasani is a student who suffers from inferior complex. He is neglected by his family and the girl he likes Isha Koppikar and so he decides to commit suicide. But this is when he achieves some extraordinary power that can make the world stand still at his will. Until he falls into the pangs himself!
 
The scary moments accompanied by the music can get you shivers and make your spine to chill. Such is the impact of the screenplay. As one story leads to another, the intensity rises with unending suspense filled moments. There are no songs and so there is no break in the narration. Technically director Prawaal Raman has given the best advantage to the film with the treatment like his mentor RGV. Amongst all this cherishable aspects only one weakness slips the film down and it is the script. The stories are terrifying but not believable. The climax is also a setback as it lacks logic.
 
Cinematography is very realistic and it helps a lot in the narration. It applies same to the sound designing and background score. Performance wise none of the actors fail to deliver what they are due. Both newcomers and veterans excel in their given territory. 

The film is fated either to emerge as a winner, or go down the piles of bad losers. All rests on the minds of the average cine-goer of today, as it is film more for multiplexes.