Customer Reviews

Naina

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This film to me was a facinating "remake" of sorts of "The Eye" Where as "The Eye" was a horror movie, "Naina" is more of a twisted Disney land.
It is bright and colorful, with a creepy undercurrent. The effects are top notch, and not much in the gore departmant. It is strange to hear the Hindu language and English mixed. It just adds to the other worldy feel. Comes with subtitles.

This film starts out as a straight out re-make or re-imagining of THE EYE. In the second act of the film you see parts of DARK WATER right down to the rain slicker. In act three you're in THE GRUDGE territory. It doesn't work as a horror film because if you've seen the other three movies you know what's coming. If you haven't seen the originals, this is a pale imitation despite the high production values. The fact that every body is speaking Hindu in England gives the whole thing a strange alternate-universe feel that was probably not intentional.

Since the orginal Hong Kong horror movie The Eye is one of my favorites, and I also watch a lot of Hindi cinema when I'm not watching asian horror, I was very curious about how Naina would stack up in both genres: surprisingly well, actually.

The plot is almost identical in both films--a young woman receives a corneal tranplant and develops the ability to see dead people--but the big difference is in how that story is told. Naina is not particularly horrific (although there are some nice moments); it's a mishmash of romance, a little broad comedy, clinical gore, and some low-grade thrills.

If you're looking for real scares, the Pang brothers' version is much better. However, this remake is vastly superior in exploring the more human elements; Naina's ambivalence about suddenly being able to see is much more nuanced in this version, as is the despair and loneliness of the young woman who originally posessed the eyes that see too much.

Independent of comparisons to the source material, Naina is not flawless entertainment--the end kind of drags on and Urmila Matondkar spends a lot of the film gasping theatrically--but it was a nice way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

And if you don't want to watch either the Hong Kong Eye or Indian Naina, Hollywood is soon releasing yet another remake staring Jessia Alba and Parker Posey. Oh boy...

A woman who has been blind from a young age undergoes a cornea transplant in an attempt to restore her sight. Everything goes as planned and the woman can now see again, but the things she starts seeing aren't very pleasant, or original. This is an almost shot for shot "remake" of the Pang Brothers The EYE, with a little more color and a lot less scares. If you speak Hindi then this may be your thing, otherwise see the far superior Gin gwai - The Eye