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Eye spy

Urmila Matondkar returns to the supernatural thriller with `Naina'


While movies about loving your parents and the rest of it are doing well, the success of Raaz and Bhoot has seen horror films come of age.

The tacky Ramsay Brothers look has been replaced with excellent production values, easy-on-the-eye stars and a reasonably tight plot.

Urmila Matondkar, who was terrifyingly effective in Ramgopal Varma's Bhoot as the possessed housewife, now renews her ties with the supernatural world with yet another spine chiller, Naina.

Naina (Urmila), loses her eyesight and her parents in a freak accident during a solar eclipse in London when she was five.

Twenty years later, her sight is restored with a corneal implant.

However, all is not rosy as Naina begins to have strange visions and sees dead people. Shripal Morakhia, who makes his directorial debut, says, "Naina is an introduction to how different the world we live in would be if the eyes were capable of spotting dead souls. At every nook and corner of our neighbourhood the eyes would see messengers of death and unsettled souls attempting to reach out to passers-by with the story of their unfulfilled desires."

Foreign flavour

Naina has been shot at 45 locations in and around London, including the Millennium Dome, Charing Cross Station, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and Waterloo.

The final sound mixing was done at Future Post in central London, where the sound for movies like King Arthur and About a Boy were mixed. The climax where underground trains and petrol stations blow up, involved scores of ambulances and fire brigades, police cars and hundreds of extras, army reserves and paramedics.

The other highlight in the movie is Urmila floating in an underwater studio.

Shot in the Action Underwater Studio where the last James Bond flick, Die Another Day was shot, it is part of a dream sequence.

Shripal comments: "The original scene was enacted in a set made in Film City but looked tacky and unreal. We then decided to shoot the same sequence in a specialised underwater studio."

In the sequence, Urmila who is not a swimmer, had to step into a 20-foot water tank, sink to the bottom and quickly come up.

There was a complete underwater camera team, an underwater lightman and health and safety officers.

Produced by iDream Productions, who were involved in movies like Monsoon Wedding, Bollywood Hollywood and Bend it Like Beckham, Naina is being screened at the on-going Cannes film festival.

Urmila's last success came with Bhoot. Will the supernatural will prove lucky for her once again?

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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