Naina
(Anchor Bay Region 0 NTSC DVD)
(2004)
review by Head Cheeze

I've always heard about the liberties “Bollywood” have taken when it comes to “remaking” films from other markets and adapting them for their own needs, but I've never actually witnessed the results, and only now, after sitting through less than half of the film Naina, can I attest to the fact that what this boils down to is nothing less than abject thievery.

Naina tells the story of a young blind woman who, after a cornea transplant, suddenly finds herself cursed with the ability to see the dead. If this all sounds somewhat familiar, that's probably because Danny and Oxide Pang's “The Eye” told the very same story three years earlier. Of course, there's always room for interpretation, right? Surely “writers” Sagar Pandya and Shripal Morakhia (who also directed) have changed things up enough?

Well, they replaced the Chinese actors with Indians. And…errr…

Were this film presented as a remake, I would still give it a middling review as Morakhia's film is so successful at aping the look and feel of the Pang Bros. original that, were it not for the Indian leads (and some bad special effects), one would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two films. However, seeing as how the credits and press materials for Naina make no reference to The Eye or the Pang Bros. one can only shake their head in disbelief. This is a shot for shot rip-off of another film, with the “filmmakers” not only taking credit for a story that is not their own, but duping viewers who haven't yet seen the Pang Bros. movie into thinking they are seeing a wholly original film. Everything, from the little cancer patient that Naina befriends in the hospital to much of the dialogue, itself, is shamelessly replicated, albeit in a far less slick and effective manner.

Even if I'd never seen The Eye, I doubt I'd have given Naina anything resembling a positive review as it is a poorly acted, clumsily directed film, with nary a hint of thrills or chills to make this a worthwhile watch. However, knowing what I know, and seeing the shameless way in which these “filmmakers” have stolen someone else's work and repackaged it as their own, I was torn between ignoring the film altogether, or giving it the rating it so richly deserves.

I chose the latter.