There’s a little place here in Orange County, California that’s one of the best kept secrets in Indian dining: Spice India. Tucked away in a little strip mall, Spice India is only about as big as a one bedroom apartment, and it’s an Indian grocery, lunch-dinner buffet, and video store all rolled into one. A small group of us eat there once every week or so, and while you’re there, you get to listen to and watch whatever Bollywood production is on the television behind the counter. One day about a month ago, as we were paying our bill at the register, a friend of mine and I started looking through the video rental titles and came across Fight Club. Now, this was not the Brad Pitt/Edward Norton vehicle. No this was an Indian version of the same movie featuring Indian actors and directed by an Indian director. The cover alone had us giggling under our breath like schoolgirls at Sunday mass. Imagine Taj from the Van Wilder movies sporting two black eyes and holding a cricket bat and you’ll get an idea of why the cover had us in stitches.

We have since considered joining the video club just to see this movie. I cannot imagine how it will be even close to the original English version, and it is my fervent hope that when I eventually do see this, the fight scenes will be choreographed musical numbers. Then again, if you told me that some Bollywood production house would have pulled off a successful imitation of The Sixth Sense and The Grudge, I’d have thought the same thing. However, Naina proves me wrong.

Naina is the story of a young woman, blinded as a child, who undergoes a corneal transplant to regain her sight. Upon removing the gauze, she soon finds that she’s seeing things that she cannot explain. At first, her doctors explain this away as the mind’s reaction to seeing things for the first time. After all, Naina has been blind for over 20 years, and while she can easily identify something by feeling it, she has trouble doing so just by looking at an object.

While in the hospital, though, Naina begins to see black shapes moving down the hall. Most of the time they are escorting other shapes. Naina is told to expect some illusions as a side effect from her surgery. She’s sent home and is also sent to see a psychiatrist who can help her get used to her newfound sense of vision.

So far, you’ve got some interesting elements in play here. You’ve got someone who was never psychic before, now seeing images of The Reaper. Is it because her vision was restored, or is it because of her new corneas themselves? Are these shapes really the agents of death?  Is it all in Naina’s head?

Enter the Bollywoodization of this particular horror film. You see, Naina is a young, attractive, single girl who has been raised by her grandmother, so obviously, granny begins trying to play matchmaker for Naina… with her psychiatrist… and he immediately falls for her (love at first sight it would seem)… and Naina is overwhelmed by joy and happiness. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of Bollywood movies, but from what I’ve gathered, this happens all the time and everyone who this happens to lives happily ever after. India is indeed a magical place. For Naina though, this only lasts for approximately five minutes.

Then weird shit starts happening again. Up until this point the movie has had a very The Sixth Sense feel to it, but rapidly shifts gears to become more like The Grudge. You see, not only can Naina see the black shapes, but now she’s seeing full fledged ghosts. and they are pissed off. Sitting in an art class, the vision of a very angry girl in white facepaint and dark eyes appears across the room from Naina. Instead of doing the crabwalk to her, though, this ghost launches across the room and slams right through Naina yelling, “You’re in my seat!”

It’s shit like this that makes Naina better than your average Sixth Sense/Grudge rip-off. Everywhere Naina goes, there seems to be some pissed off ghost just waiting to share their anger with her. It begins to drive her insane, and when she’s readmitted to the hospital things get worse. A young girl she befriended in her initial stay comes to her and tells her she’s leaving the hospital ward. Naina watches in horror as a black shape approaches the girl and they both walk through the walls of the operating room. Naina quickly tells one of the nurses that the girl has died on the table and is soon proven right. This is finally the piece of evidence she needs to convince her psychiatrist/boyfriend, Sameer, that what she’s seeing is real.

When Naina attends the funeral and is given a picture of the girl and her together, something weird (and continuity-defying) happens. Naina does not recognize herself in the picture, nor does she recognize herself in the mirror. Soon, she begins to piece together that the image she’s seeing is the face of the girl whose corneas Naina now calls her own. The only way to stop the images and retrieve her identity is to find out who this girl is and solve the mystery of how she died.

Nothing I’ve written so far would have compelled me to seek out this movie. Its plot is reminiscent of many movies that have come out over the seven years or so since that damn Osment kid saw dead people. However, Naina is worth seeing despite its flaws (and there are more than a few). First off, the camerawork in this film is fantastic. If nothing else, it’s framed brilliantly and the colors jump right out at you. C.K. Muraleedharan is credited as Director of Photography here, and he does an excellent job of capturing both stunning beauty and fantastically gory horror.

Next, you have to give credit to Director Shripal Morakhia for not skimping on the effects, but also not overusing them. The CGI here is good stuff and his use of Matrix-style camera effects works well also. Particularly fun is a scene where Naina, in dream mode, walks into a morgue where multiple autopsies are being performed. All motion within the room stops as she moves through the scene. Water is frozen in mid-spill, an organ of some kind is suspended in mid-air over a container of formaldehyde, and when something does start moving, it’s a human torso with an excavated chest cavity whose head begins to turn to follow her progress through the scene. This is good, creepy fun. Even some of the jump scares are impressive, especially the scenes in elevators and restaurants.

There are two places where Naina falls short in my opinion, but I’m willing to concede that these both may be cultural in nature. First, there’s the acting. Naina is played by Urmila Matondkar and her portrayal is reminiscent of what you would expect from an American soap opera star. When she plays “crazy” it looks like something pulled from the late night class at the Larry Storch School of Drama. Lots of fast breathing, big eyes and outstretched arms prevail. This only works well once, in a restaurant scene where, thanks to the fellow diners’ reactions, she comes across as legitimately disturbed. Unfortunately, Naina acts disturbed approximately once every four minutes and 23 seconds, if my stopwatch was accurate. That shit gets old quick.

Anuj Sawhney plays Naina’s boyfriend/psychiatrist Sameer, and his acting chops are also pretty standard for the Bollywood crowd. He plays the good looking do-good doctor about as well as you can expect, but the stock facial expressions for disgust, frustration, etc. are not just distracting, they can be funny. When Naina storms out of his office upon the suggestion that she take some medication to calm down, he doesn’t follow her. Instead he sits behind the desk, slams his hand down on the table and emotes like he’s on Days Of Our Lives.

Again, I’m not sure that this is really something any fan of Indian film will complain about, but I’m not Indian, and I’m reviewing this movie presumably for a predominantly American audience, so I had to throw it out there.

The second place where this fails is in the love story between Sameer and Naina. This really doesn’t need to be in the movie at all, but I’m guessing it’s there because the culture demands it. It’s weak on all fronts, and even when the end comes and Naina gives her stock Bollywood happy ending speech, it feels fake and forced. Again though, I’m a pessimistic American whose appreciation of happy cinematic endings has waned considerably in my 38 years on this planet.

Those two things aside, I still think Naina is a good film and I would recommend horror fans, or even people who just liked The Sixth Sense, The Grudge or any of the similar movies that sprung from their loins, check this out.

Presentation
Man, this movie looks GOOD. I think I’ve covered that above reasonably well, but I’ll say it again. This movie is shot very well and the audio is just as good. There are two options here, one for Dolby Digital 2.0 and one for Dolby Digital 5.1. I did the latter with English subtitles and it sounded superb. If you have a widescreen television, you’ll reap the full benefits of the camerawork.

Extras
There are none to speak of on this disc. You get some Trailers for other Allumination titles and that’s all.

The Bottom Line
Next time you’re at the video store and you are just about to pick up that straight to video title like Room 6, It Waits or, heaven forbid, The Tooth Fairy, stop yourself and find Naina instead. It’s better than all three of those and well worth your time.