Movie Review: Click

Can't Bollywood do better than another apathetic Hollywood horror remake that rehashes huge chunks of the original and in the end has almost nothing new to offer?

Sangeeth Sivan's 'Click' has more in common with the Adam Sandler comic film of the same name than the original film 'Shutter', because like in Sandler's movie there are about three dozen moments of laughter, though unintentional in this case. What's more, the ghostess in 'Click' is akin to a hilarious hybrid of Barbie and Lalita Pawar. She isn't the least bit scary, she's actually kind of hot (she can haunt me any day). But the characters are absolutely intolerable, after a point you'll be rooting for everyone in the film to get slaughtered out of sheer boredom. No to mention the horrid special effects, which someone better be ready to be embarrassed about.

'Click' is a remake of a Thai ghost story that follows a seemingly perfect couple (photographer Shreyas Talpade and Model Sada) who, after a tragic accident, discover amateurishly-photoshopped ghostly images in all pictures they develop. When they begin to investigate, they are stalked by an annoying, sobbing ghostess wherever they go. The idea behind the film is interesting and it worked in the original. Unfortunately this ripoff/remake is deadly dull and has no traction. Director Sangeeth Sivan's strategy was undoubtedly to make a disposable horror film, in hopes that some reputable actors might breathe life into the material, but Shreyas Talpade and Sada do little to salvage the mess.

The script of 'Click' offers few thrills and a slapdash story, and was quite obviously written by Harish Nayar while watching the original film on DVD. Shreyas Talpade has exactly two good lines, but he delivers them in an utter vacuum. He is a terrific actor, but there's little he can do to cover the cavernous gaps in logic in the script. Adding further to the film's misery is the galling, over the top background score that tries too hard to shock.

A certified Bollywood disaster, 'Click' joins 'Naina' in the ranks of worst horror remakes of all-time, I suggest you watch the original Thai film, or something scarier - like the multi layered masterpiece 'KHOONI RAAT'.