Darna Mana Hai

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Darna Mana Hai

Movie poster for Darna Mana Hai
Directed by Prawal Raman
Produced by Ram Gopal Varma,
Taufiq Ahmed
Written by Atul Sabharwal,
Rajnish Thakur,
Abbas Tyrewala
Starring Saif Ali Khan,
Nana Patekar,
Vivek Oberoi,
Boman Irani,
Sanjay Kapoor,
Shilpa Shetty,
Sohail Khan,
Antara Mali,
Sameera Reddy,
Rajpal Yadav,
Aftab Shivdasani,
Isha Koppikar,
Peeya Rai Chowdhary,
Revathi,
Raghuvir Yadav
Music by Salim Merchant,
Suleman Merchant
Cinematography Vishal Sinha
Distributed by K Sera Sera Productions
Release date(s) July 25, 2003
Language Hindi
IMDb profile

Darna Mana Hai (Hindi: डरना मना है, Urdu: ڈرنا منع ہے, English: Getting Scared is Forbidden) is a Bollywood production, released on July 25, 2003. It was considered a unique and innovative attempt by (joint) producer Ram Gopal Varma and director Prawal Raman to provide Indian audiences with an anthology horror film which consists of six different short stories. This concept was inspired from the popular Canadian TV-series Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Tales from the Crypt. It stars a host of Bollywood celebrities including Aftab Shivdasani, Vivek Oberoi, Saif Ali Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Sameera Reddy, Isha Koppikar Nana Patekar, Sohail Khan, and more.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Saif Ali Khan as featured in the film
Saif Ali Khan as featured in the film

Darna Mana Hai interweaves six stories into one film. Six friends get stuck in the middle of a forest when their car breaks down, and they find refuge in an abandoned house. To keep each other amused, they tell each other horror and supernatural stories that they have heard over a bonfire.

[edit] Story 1

The first story is about a married couple Karan (Sohail Khan) and Anjali (Antara Mali) who get stuck in the middle of a forest. After the car stops suddenly, Karan gets out to investigate the problem. After his disappearance, and his constant cries for help from the desolated forest, Anjali runs in to attempt to rescue him. After finding Karan's torch covered in blood, and being stalked by an unseen person or supernatural being, Anjali runs around panicking to find a hand reaching out of a swamp. She then becomes terrified to find that the hand is wearing a watch identical to her husbands. After failed attempts to rescue him, the hand disappears. Someone creeps up on her and as Anjali screams, it turns out to be Karan. Karan seems normal and fine while Anjali, whimpering, attempts to tell him that she heard him screaming. However, Karan tells her that he heard her screams from the forest when he went to retrieve water. She looks at the torch she is holding which is now clean of the blood and then hurries back to the car with Karan telling him to get them both out of there. After quickly fixing the problem with the water, Karan and the panicked Anjali climb into the car and drive off. After seeing the anxious and worriedstate of Anjali, Karan puts his arm around her as she leans on himand closes her eyes. He then smirks and looks into the rear view mirror of the car in which his reflection is not visible and Anjali seems to be leaning on nothing, thus conveying that he did die in the swap and is now a ghost.

[edit] Story 2

The second story involves a photographer Anil (Saif Ali Khan) who checks into an inn while he is on his way to Mumbai. The manager and owner (Boman Irani) of the lodge is a strange and eccentric man and insists that smoking is strongly prohibited in his lodge. When Anil tries to go outside for a smoke, the man restricts him, telling him about the diseases that come along with smoking. The owner then locks Anil inside the lodge and tells Anil that in a matter of months, he can cure his smoking addiction. The owner takes Anil to a basement of sort and shows him piles of dead bodies, telling him that he tried but these people would not stop smoking. After a few months, Anil is now seen working in the lodge, and acting strange and eccentric himself. When a customer walks in smoking and asks him for a room, Anil tells him that smoking is strongly prohibited and then proceeds to shoot the man with a gun. The story ends with Anil and the owner sitting together, smiling and watching T.V., when an ad against smoking runs as a commercial.

This story is similar to the story sung in The Eagles' 'Hotel California'. It also shares many thematic elements with Alfred Hitchcock's thriller 'Psycho'.

[edit] Story 3

The third story is that of a school teacher (Rajpal Yadav) who confronts a strange student, Pramila, who is always punished for not completing her homework. Then, suddenly she becomes a bright student and starts doing her homework regularly. This sudden change invokes a strange behaviour in the school teacher. It is revealed that he murdered his bright classmate in jealousy when they were in school. As the memories come reeling back, the teacher eventually loses his sanity.

[edit] Story 4

The fourth story revolves around a housewife (Shilpa Shetty) who buys "mysterious" apples from a strange vendor (Rajpal Yadav). When she gets home her husband (Sanjay Kapoor) eats an apple and finds it very tasty. The wife worries if something might happen to him after eating them as she found the vendor who sold the apples to her very suspicious. The next morning when she wakes up she is shocked to find an apple next to her instead of her husband. She is shocked when she realises that her husband has turned into an apple after eating it. So she runs outside and is even more shocked to see apples everywhere on the ground after every person who has eaten them has turned into them. The vendor man then appears with an evil look offering her his last apple for free.

[edit] Story 5

In the fifth story, an elderly man named John (Nana Patekar) is standing at a graveyard. A young man Amar (Vivek Oberoi) passes by and gives lift to John. Amar asks John why he was at the graveyard. (Amar thought that John's wife is dead so he might have come to her cemetery). But John says that it is him who is dead. Amar dismisses it as a joke. After some more conversation, Amar gets irritated by John's strange behavior. Amar, then gets out of the car and asks John to get out. Finally John says he works for MTV Bakra (Its a program on similar lines as Punk'd. Bakra means goat, a term in Hindi applied to someone who has been fooled.) and Amar is the first person who was not scared. Amar says that he was not scared because he knew beforehand that John was not a ghost. He tells him that he knew this because he himself is a ghost. John thinks that Amar is now trying to play a prank on him. But when Amar takes off his sunglasses, his eyes are hollow. When John sees this, he dies of shock.

[edit] Story 6

The sixth and final story is about a young student Purab (Aftab Shivdasani) and his love interest Abhilasha (Isha Koppikar). Purab contemplates suicide because Abhilasha rejects his advances and nobody else in his college likes him either. He rants about not being special in front of an idol. Later, he suddenly discovers that he has developed an extraordinary ability - he can to stop time for a particular person just by saying “stop” to them. Purab uses his ability to freeze Abhilasha. Thereafter, Purab is in his room looking into the mirror, rejoicing over the fact that Abhilasha won't belong to anyone if she doesn't belong to him. However, he accidentally says "stop" to the mirror, freezing himself. His father finds him like that in his room, with a victorious smile frozen on his face. He is immediately rushed to the hospital but nothing can be done for him.

As soon as the sixth story finishes, the students stranded in the forest hear another person coming towards the abandoned shack. It turns about to be Sushant Singh, who claims that it is in fact his shack where they are resting. He says that he had been listening to their stories, and it is now his turn to tell one. He tells them, that there is a serial killer in the forests who murders anyone who enters it in the night, and describes some of the murders that had happened recently. It turns out that he is the serial-killer, and he has murdered most of their friends. Only Shruti (Sameera Reddy) survives last and runs as fast as she can but the killer catches up with her, and stabs her. She manages to kill the serial killer and then falls unconscious. When Shruti wakes up next morning, she sees that the place is swarming with police. She tries to tell them what had happened but they can’t hear her. Then she is joined by her dead friends, that’s when she realizes that she to is dead.

[edit] Reviews

  • India FM [1]
  • Apun Ka Choice [2]

[edit] Box Office

The film, which opened in mid-2003, opened to an average response, but the box office figures declined rapidly after bad reviews and negative word-of-mouth. Domestically it earned $132,348. Although it was acclaimed for its daring and unique plot, DMH received a flop status [3].

[edit] Cast

[edit] Crew

  • Director: Prawaal Raman
  • Producer: Ram Gopal Varma
  • Production House: K Sera Sera, Varma Corporation Ltd.
  • Cinematography: Vishal Sinha
  • Action: Allan Amin
  • Art: Sunil Nigvekar
  • Editor: Amit Parmar, Nipun Gupta
  • Screenplay: Atul Sabharwal, Abbas Tyrewala
  • Dialogue: Atul Sabharwal, Abbas Tyrewala
  • Story/Writer: Atul Sabharwal, Abbas Tyrewala, Rajneesh Thakur
  • Music: Salim Suleiman

[edit] Soundtrack

Darna Mana Hai:
The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Darna Mana Hai:The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack cover
Studio album by Salim Suleiman
Released 2003
Genre Soundtrack
Length min
Label ZEE Records
Producer Salim Suleiman

The soundtrack features 6 songs composed by Salim Suleiman, with lyrics by Lalit Marathe.

Track listing:

  1. "Darna Mana Hai" (4:20) – Sunidhi Chauhan, Ninad Kamat, Naresh Kamat
  2. "Darna Mana Hai Remix" (4:15) – Sunidhi Chauhan, Ninad Kamat, Naresh Kamat
  3. "Homework" (5:11) – Clinton Creejo, Aparna Jha, Vijay
  4. "Jo Dar Gaya Voh Mar Gaya" (4:45) – Sunidhi Chauhan, Salim Merchant, Naresh Kamat
  5. "No Smoking" (4:56) – Ravi Khote
  6. "Stop" (4:27) – Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Ram Gopal Varma
Directed films
Shiva  (1989) • Kshana Kshanam  (1991) • Raat  (1992) • Antam  (1992) • Drohi  (1992) • Gaayam  (1993) • Govindha Govindha  (1993) • Rangeela  (1995) • Great Robbery  (1996) • Anaganaga Oka Roju  (1996) • Deyyam  (1997) • Daud: Fun on the Run  (1997) • Satya  (1998) • Prema Katha  (1999) • Kaun  (1999) • Mast  (1999) • Jungle  (2000) • Company  (2002) • Bhoot  (2003) • Naach  (2004) • Sarkar  (2005) • Shiva  (2006) • Darna Zaroori Hai (Story 2)  (2006) • Nishabd  (2007) • Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag  (2007) • Darling  (2007) • Sarkar Raj  (2008)
Productions
Money  (1993) • Money Money  (1994) • Gulabi  (1996) • W/O V.Varaprasad  (1998) • Dil Se  (1998) • Shool  (1999) • Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya  (2001) • Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega  (2001) • Road  (2002) • Darna Mana Hai  (2003) • Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon  (2003) • Ek Hasina Thi  (2004) • Ab Tak Chhappan  (2004) • Gayab  (2004) • Vaastu Shastra  (2004) • D  (2005) • Mr Ya Miss  (2005) • Shabri  (2005) • Shock  (2006) • Darna Zaroori Hai  (2006) • Darwaaza Bandh Rakho  (2006) • Go (2007) • Zabardast  (2007) • Leelai  (2007)