Hisss

At the risk of attracting several arched eyebrows and incredulous looks, I have to say I was looking forward to watching Hisss. And even more alarmingly, I rather enjoyed the movie. Maybe my ability to derive joy out of nonsensical movies is more evolved than others, but then to my defense, I absolutely detested Singh is Kinng (and all subsequent Akshay – and Priyadarshan - movies). This movie goes much beyond Akshay’s efforts, and delivers a really cinematic classic

Infact I happened to read in the papers today that the director Jennifer Lynch has disowned the movie saying she left the movie once the shooting was wrapped up. She never entered the editing room and we actually owe the present form of this masterpiece to co-producer Govind Menon. Infact according to Jennifer, she was intending to make it a love story rather than a horror one.

(I have to say, after watching the movie, I cannot for the life of me imagine this as a love story. But then neither can something so funny be a horror movie !!)

Nevertheless I think the greatness of this movie can be judged only by comparing it to that another epic - Jaani Dushman. And I have to say, this movie trumps Jaani Dushman by some margin. Granted it doesn’t have Sonu Nigam’s terrible hamming in it, but it has Mallika Sherawat in almost every frame of the movie, almost naked or as a giant snake. Plus she doesnt speak (only screams a little at the end). And Mallika’s snake (or butt) would anyday kick Armaan Kohli’s butt

By now you must have realized that Hisss is not a movie to be taken seriously (I can just imagine how much fun this movie is going to be drunk). You definitely should not expect a cogent, logical story and slick editing – it has neither. In fact it has problems keeping the timeline linear. However, to its credit, the snake scenes are done rather well. Coupled with jerky camera movements, it will definitely make you jump more than once. And the family scenes of Irfan Khan and Divya Dutta are also handled very sensitively

Now let me touch on why you should bother with this movie. Mallika is mostly minimally clad – just a dupatta draping her, for example. Or she is naked climbing trees, lamp posts - or swimming in rivers. Some of those scenes are quite explicit – it is surprising how they cleared the censors. But the most epic of scenes comes when Mallika is chasing one of the baddies in a burqa and nothing else. She is jumping from roof to roof and one such jump is caught in surprising detail from the street below – bums and all. Nearly everyone in the hall almost choked on their laughter

There are similar ridiculous moves which make the movie worth it. But only if you can overlook the cheesiness. I don’t see any point in rating this movie, since it will score very poorly. But if you want to watch a movie after having a round of booze - or you enjoy nonsensical movies like I do - you cant pick a better movie.