REVIEW: Anamika shocks you!
Decades ago Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bachchan acted in an engaging suspense film called Anamika. In 2008 director Ananth Mahadevan (whose last film was the disastrous Victoria 203 remake) borrows the name, but can he spin an interesting tale?
What's the mysterious plot?
Anamika is a about a young escort (No, not the Laaga Chunari Mein Daag types. This one doesn't mix business with pleasure) Jia (Minissha Lamba), who gets married to a rich industrialist Kunwar Vikram Aditya Singh Sisodia. Post-marriage the couple moves in to Vikram's ancestral palace in Rajasthan. It turns out he is a widower whose first wife has died under mysterious circumstances. The lady in question – You guessed it! Her name is Anamika - was a perfect wife and a big hit in the social circle. Everything in the palace has the alphabet A on it (was she inspired by Mr A of Dhoom 2?). Constant comparisons with Anamika make Jia insecure and she suddenly starts sensing the presence of dead Anamika's spirit. Jia's only support is Vikram's possessive, childhood friend cum palace caretaker Malini (Koena Mitra). A strange twist of fate leads Jia to Anamika's dead body and this gives the police a chance to reopen the case. How this affects the relationship between Jia, Mailini and Vikram forms the mystery in the film.
Oh yes the film does borrow heavily from the book Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. And even in the past many filmmakers have been 'inspired' by this theme.
A confused director leaves the viewer even more confused:
The biggest problem with Anamika is that the director doesn't know whether he is making a horror flick or a plain murder mystery. To his credit Mahadevan maintains an eerie feel through the film but spoils the plot by switching tracks between the two genres. And after putting us through two hours of forced thrills, the climax is a hurried affair. One feels the writers just wanted to end the film in the simplest possible way because the producers ran out of raw stock. In fact, the totally ridiculous culmination is the weakest link in the plot. Also if you have seen Gupt and films from the Bhatt camp and Abbas Mastan stable, it's not too difficult to figure out the suspense.
Dino Morea's refreshing screen presence:
Dino Morea is surprisingly relaxed in front of the camera. Though his role requires little more than dressing in designer clothes and looking confused, Dino is no longer the wooden-faced actor he once was.
In knew it!!!