Durgamati : The Myth is an Indian Hindi Horror Mystery Thriller Film directed by Ashok G. It stars Bhumi Pednekar, Mahie Gill, Arshad Warsi, and Jisshu Sengupta in main roles. It was released on 11th December 2020 on Amazon Prime Video.
The story begins with a place where the idols of 12 ancient temples have been stolen. The Water Resources Minister Ishwar Prasad (Arshad Warsi), considered as the honest minister of the state, promises people in a gathering that if the temple idol stealers are not caught in 15 days, he will resign from his ministerial post and politics by taking renunciation, and by making Ajay his successor, who considers his duty a supreme religion to serve the people. People believe that Ishwar Prasad is a God because of his honesty but the Chief Minister and other party leaders are scared of this. The Chief Minister of the state asks the CBI Joint Commissioner Satakshi Ganguly (Mahie Gill) and ACP Abhay Singh (Jisshu Sengupta) to expose the corruption of Ishwar Prasad. As part of the plan, Satakshi Ganguly and ACP Abhay Singh take the former private secretary and IAS officer Chanchal Chauhan (Bhumi Pednekar) out of the jail for questioning as she has served the government as an IAS Officer and has worked as a secretary for Ishwar Prasad for 10 years.
They take her to a 'Durgamati Haveli', a Bhutiya Palace in the middle of the jungle. Chanchal was in jail for the murder of her fiancee and Abhay Singh's younger brother Shakti (Karan Kapadia). In the opinion of the local people, the angry spirit of Rani Durgamati resides in the palace who was known for doing human sacrifices on Amavasya. But CBI officer Shatakshi inquires about Ishwar Prasad's exploitations and corruptions while keeping Chanchal away from everyone's eyes in that haunted Haveli. The police and CBI officer realizes that as soon as nightfall comes, the spirit of Rani Durgamati arrives and she possesses Chanchal and she tells them who Rani Durgamati was. Finally, on the advice of a psychiatrist (Anant Mahadevan), and with her recent accident with ACP Abhay Singh, Chanchal is admitted to a mental asylum where Ishwar Prasad comes to meet her. So is Durgamati real or Chanchal is playing any trick? Is Ishwar Prasad really a corrupt minister? All this will be clear after watching this movie.
This Hindi remake of a Tamil and Telugu successful film penned by Ashok G. deeply disappoints. The story should be told on feminism and corruption, but the film 'Durgamati' does not meet this criterion either. There are a lot of mistakes in the script. Why is or is that palace really cursed? Why did the archeology department never say anything about this palace? After all, how can an investigating agency take an IAS officer out of jail to a deserted mansion for questioning? The film 'Durgamati' does not try to answer all such questions.
The film has been described as a horror-thriller, but it has neither horror, nor thriller, or adventure. In reality, these days, this film carries on the tradition of serving anything in front of the audience in the name of cinema. The style of narrative is flawed due to the script written for the film. Not only this, its dialogues are worse than the screenplay. Dialogue like "paani me lakeer khichne ke barabar" and "registaan me kuye khodne k barabar" reminds you how silly and ordinary they are.
Seeing the film makes it difficult to realize that this director had directed the original successful film. Here the direction is very patchy. The film is in Hindi but the CBI officer mostly talks in English and awfully in Bengali, and why, not explained. Why is Bhumi Pednekar's lips so swollen, did she do that to herself? The filmmaker did not care to answer this also. Director and writer are completely to blame for loopholes and for writing such a lazy script. The director has inserted dynasticism, Hindutva issue, temple issue i.e. all the spices that could be in politics, which was at least a good thing from this film.
Only the last half hour is watchable as it provides some rigidity to the story when everything comes to places and becomes clear. Otherwise, the first 2 hours were testing my patience and could have wrapped up in a little less than 2 hours. It feels far stretched with terrible characters and their characterizations which are far away from being real or even logical.
Bhumi Pednekar is good here but because of the weak script she is just stuck here with her mediocre performance especially when she gets possessed, the energy of the voice never matches how she's saying, that's very bad, in fact, very terrible dubbing. Arshad Warsi just hams around and is never good and is impactless. Mahie Gill was very average, and her Bengali accent was horrible, and was that even required? It doesn't add anything to the film. Jisshu Sengupta is a let down here, but kudos to him for saying Durgamati is better than Bhagamathie.
The cinematography is good by Kuldeep Mamania in some places and gives a pure Tamil movie feels and the background score is unnecessarily loud and the songs are forgettable. The production design by Tariq Umar Khan is commendable though.
Durgamati The Myth is a weak remake. After Laxmii, this is another disappointment which doesn't has anything exciting to offer. Even Bhumi can't save this film. A good decision not to release it in theaters, it has big sets that could have been only enjoyed on the big screen, but the film as a whole is dull and big thumbs down and it really doesn't deserve a theatre release. It's high time, Bollywood should stop making and ruining movies by doing remakes as they should understand that it could never match the impression and authenticity the original has.
Rating:- 2/5
Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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