Seen And Unforseen. Review on Naina

Sight is a wonderful gift – the quintessential factor that imparts life to an organism. People can be fathomed by just a look. Your eyes reflect your inner self, your character. Eyes are the most powerful weapon a human can posses.

Statistically, 7% of the Indian population is blind. Moreover, 50% of that population is below poverty line (Source: Journal Of The Indian Medical Association). Thousands of people pledge to donate eyes so that someone among the 70 million Indians may see the beautiful world.

These 70 million Indians must be kneeling besides their beds, each night, praying for sight – physical sight; for they are not totally blind. They have a foresight, which asks them to hold on with life, a sight of hope that has shown them the examples of Helen Keller and Louis Braille.

BUT BOLLYWOOD DISAGREES

Or at least some people in there do.

When I think of the impracticality, the irrationality, the sheer foolishness of what is being depicted in NAINA, I just cannot imagine a better way to play a joke on the blind.

THE MOVIE

Naina(Urmila Matondkar) is a blind girl in her early twenties (Someone has rightly said – what’s in a name? A blind girl can always be called Naina, sarcastically or otherwise.). She undergoes a cornea transplant and no sooner does she start adapting herself to sight and visions than she begins having hallucinations.

She sees dead bodies all over the place, people telling her that they’re dying, bodies hanging by the neck, men being crushed under trucks – everything associated with death and the dead.

She contacts a psychiatrist who confidently assures her that there’s nothing wrong with her and hallucinations do have a scientific cure. But hallucinations from Bollywood have no cure…Finally, along with the doctor, she tracks down the history of her cornea. The cornea originally belongs to a young girl who could see the future, and was considered a witch by her neighbours.

The climax is abrupt and quite incomprehensible. Naina loses her eyes again in an accident and lives happily ever after.

One of the few things worth watching in the movie is Urmila Matondkar’s performance. She has brilliantly displayed a characteristic terrified stare and hysterical screams. The special effects and the sound are cool, but the audience gets an overwhelming sense of déjà vu – we saw most of this two years ago in BHOOT

I OBJECT

Are they telling us that the blind are better off without vision? Do they mean to undo the practice of eye donation?

The whole world is in dire need of public service telecommunication. Whereas in India, with the sinking collar lines of actresses, the standard of Hindi cinema is also plunging. Talent and histrionics are being replaced by skin shows. Educational and motivating movies like YUVA and LAKSHYA are being replaced by sleaze and sex.

Particularly in this case, Naina carries no point at all! It’s just a film made for the sake of business. Now personally, I have nothing against businessmen, but if people want to call themselves filmmakers, they should stick to concrete and practical storylines.

Nevertheless, Naina is good for a horror flick. But Mr. Ram Gopal Verma would have received lot more applause had he put his talent to a more practical and non-artificial idea. At least, he could have told us a cure for hallucinations, couldn’t he?

What am I saying? Everyone knows that psychiatric advice is much costlier than a movie ticket.