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'Rain' A Washout

By N K Deoshi
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

The very reason why ‘Rain’ was made becomes clear at the very outset in the opening reels. A sensuous looking Meghna Naidu in a bathtub, her legs outstretched in an inviting pose.

Mind it! She is not a seductress. She plays a blind girl who is also an accomplished author. And the identity of the movie’s male star, Himanshu Malik, remains a mystery till the fag end. Is he a journalist, an admirer or a rapist?

Directed

by Amol Shetge, ‘Rain’ is a poor attempt to combine skin-show with a thriller. The only thing the movie has to offer (for males only) is Meghna Naidu’s popping cleavage and her sex appeal. For this purpose the movie’s story keeps a special provision of ‘dream sequences’ in which our voluptuous heroine dresses in skimpy, translucent clothes, much to the entertainment of the hoi polloi that spend their hard earned money to see such ‘valuable’ assets.

‘Rain’ is a skin flick disguising itself as a thriller.

Story:

Sandhya Bhatnagar (Meghna Naidu) was born blind. Over the years, she has fought against all the odds that came her way due to her handicap, and gone on to become an accomplished author. She is a woman who lives in a secluded house on a hill station. She is haunted by a horrible incident from her past.

One day, a journalist named Prakash (Himanshu Malik) seeks an appointment to interview her. Before Prakash arrives at her home, Sandhya starts hiding all the knives in the house at different places – beneath the sofa, under the table, in the cupboard etc. She also keeps a gun in her bookshelf.

Prakash arrives. After a few casual questions, he comes to know that Sandhya has a strange phobia – the fear of rain. After probing further, Prakash gets to know that Sandhya was raped on a rainy night. Since then she has had a phobia of rain.

She tells Prakash about her horrible past. That she got pregnant with the rapist’s son. In those days, she got a proposal of marriage from a man named Avinash, who was willing to accept her and the child. But when Sandhya gave birth to a stillborn child, Avinash disappeared without ever meeting her.

As Sandhya lays bare her inner wounds in front of the journalist, an intimacy develops between the two. In one such intimate moment, the two kiss each other. This kiss recalls a flood of memories in Sandhya’s mind. She knows she has been kissed exactly like this once before too.

‘Rain’ is a movie meant for selective audiences only -- those who want titillation and some suspense. The film has few fine sequences in between, but there is nothing substantial enough to grip you.

Except, of course, Meghna Naidu, who flaunts her assets without the least bit of inhibition. Surprisingly, the girl has also improved as far as her acting skills are concerned. But she still isn’t competent enough to take on the role of a blind girl.

Himanshu Malik overacts at many places in the movie. His expressions are overblown and superficial. He also needs to get rid of the extra fat he has gathered.

Amol Shetge hasn’t really chosen a bad story for his movie. But he fails to tell the story convincingly and puts in too many songs, particularly in the second half. A story like this needed to be told intensely and at a slick pace without any breakers. Rather, the skin-show by Meghna forms a common thread throughout the movie. After all, the producers had to make sure to recover their money too.

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