Dobaara: See Your Evil is a 2017 Bollywood Indian supernatural horror film written, produced and directed by Prawaal Raman (404: Error Not Found; Darna Zaroori Hai – You Gotta Be Scared; Darna Mana Hai).
It is an official adaptation of the 2013 American horror film Oculus and is executive produced by Mike Flanagan (director of Oculus), Jeff Howard and Trevor Macy via his Intrepid Pictures. It stars real-life siblings, Huma Qureshi and Saqib Saleem.
The film was released on May 19, 2017.
Kabeer Merchant (Saqib Saleem) has been in a juvenile correctional facility for ten years, after being implicated for the death of his father, Alex Merchant (Adil Hussain), while unsuccessfully trying to save his mother, Liza Merchant (Lisa Ray) from him.
His sister, Natasha Merchant (Huma Qureshi), believes her brother is innocent and that a paranormal mirror at their home was responsible for their parents’ deaths, a decade ago. Will she be able to prove Kabeer’s innocence, or will he be seen as a criminal all his life?
Reviews:
” …given that the film deals with the genre of horror, Raman had the opportunity to use lighting and camera angles to evoke fear while simultaneously also displaying the plight of the onscreen characters. Unfortunately, Raman miscarries this with most of the scares, though few and far between, coming via the tried and tested jump scare technique that gives the film a very dated feel.” Bollywood Hungama
“Bollywood cannot make horror films and this movie is just another example. Despite it being a remake of the Hollywood movie Oculus, it’s the poor direction and extremely slow first half which prevents the audience from building any interest.
Huma and Saqib provide good performances but nothing impressive.” Bollywood, to the Point.
“It takes itself very seriously but gives us no reason to take it seriously. It’s so determined to be loud and shocking that it just feels goofy instead. However, it isn’t a boring movie at all. In fact, its glaring shortcomings actually make it a pretty entertaining film. This isn’t a so-bad-it’s-good kind of movie, though. Dobaara is more accurately described as so-weird-it’s-hypnotic.” Blair Hoyle, Cinema Slasher
Director Prawaal Raman is known for making some good films […] His 404: Error Not Found is considered as one of the finest psychological horror from recent times. Sadly, in ‘Dobaara’ despite of setting right mood he ends up delivering a mediocre project. The film fails to connect in its conversational as well as horror part.” Divya Solgama, Bollywood Times
Performances:
Huma Qureshi fails to get inside the skin of her character. Despite of being an England born citizen, one can find her talking without the accent, lacks the body mannerisms and ends up delivering weak expressions. In front of her, Saqib Saleem is a bit better, but ends up being a victim of a half-baked character.
Cast and characters:
- Huma Qureshi as Natasha Merchant
- Saqib Saleem as Kabeer Merchant
- Adil Hussain as Alex Merchant
- Lisa Ray as Liza Merchant
- Madalina Bellariu Ion as Ana
