Hum Maun Hain- is the reaction that one guage after coming out from this thriller-horror drama of débutant director Ravishankar Sharma and débutant producer Soni Juneja (son of veteran producer Toni who along with his brother Tito produced films like Do Anjaane, Ram Balram, Mr. Natwarlal, Insaniyat, Johnny I Love You, Teri Kasam etc.). A credit which definitely this spooky flick deserves is that it is not deviated from the original plot of its inspiration, the Nicole Kidman starrer "The Others".(if the subplot of Dharmendra is ignored). This is a rare phenomenon when one looks at all those remakes of their Originals, in Hindi films. The problem here is that the original is so good that a lot is been expected from this one and comparison is bound to come. And here it misses the points. There are plus and minus points as usual. Other Plus points are- apart from keeping original plot intact, there are no songs, no forced humor or any of box office ingredients (violence/Sex) and a good length of about 2.10 hrs. Because of all these, definitely first time producer-director duo deserves a thumbs up ! It is indeed a brave attempt. But there are those negative points, which over weighs and thus turns this product into a mediocre, average fare. The narrative of original film is brilliant with taut screenplay blending well on technical as well as Dramatic scale and yet having an experimental edge. Here firstly, the screenplay by Soham Saha is weak in the sense he does not adapted the original in the right context keeping Indian Background and values in mind. He kept the Christianity faith dominant from the original, which an average Indian moviegoer find little hard to digest. Dialogues (Talat Rekhi) are uninteresting. The pace of the film is slow which in the second half appears dragging and slack. The treatment is over simplistic where they hardly played around with Potential elements such as Camera, Sound or Background Score (Sanjoy Choudhury), a must for such a thriller. Moreover, the drama though is controlled but yet at places it tends to get melodramatic. Example is the Kabhie Kabhie type of couplets by Mr. Bachchan (not needed). Performances are Average as a lot more is expected from Protagonist (Dimple Kapadia) who definitely is not in her best form. Actors of caliber Amitabh Bachchan (Special Appearance) and Dharminder are wasted in their respective roles, where they are not really required. Child artists-Hansika Motwani and Amman gets loud. Ishwar Bidri is capable of better camera-work than what is seen here. Production Values are also below Average and so are visual effects, though thankfully they are not used much. The whole sub-plot which is an addition involving Dharmendra and Vikram Gokhale is not complimenting the original drama. The pertinent questions of existence of dead in the world of living ones and the time frame in which the life form exits-are left open for debate which is a proper thing to do but is too abrupt. All in all, if looking for a different film, with novelty in concept than surely this film is quite ahead of all those run of the mill releases.
Review of Hum Kaun Hai?
