EK DIN EK RAAT (review)

Cast: Vinay Shrestha, Diya Maskey, Anup Baral, Pooja Lama, Karma Shakya,Menuka Pradhan, Prabesh Giri, Gauri Malla, Sabhya (Jasper Neupane)

Director: Dev Kumar Shrestha

At a running time of Two hour and ten minutes, Dev Kumar Shrestha's Ek Din Ek raat is a  an irritating experiment that you boast for nothing.
The film starts introducing Utsav(Vinay Shrestha), a news reporter (T.V/ NEWSPAPER -Not clear), in his gut feeling in unseen power of a road Accident . This doesn't satisfy his Boss who asks him prove what he said within 24 hours; so the supposed-to-be- the edge of thriller begins with his gangs of friends…. Ichchha (Diya Maskey), Jen (Karma Shakya), Rushan (Menuka Pradhan), Nil (Prabesh Shrestha), Sabhya (Jasper Neupane)),Pralaya(Anup Baral) and Pooja Lama added...

When this  unit goes into chasing their thrill for news, an unknown, inexplicable entity begins killing them one by one. With every one's lives at stake, hierarchical differences in the team no longer matter; each must fend for himself, and soon people's real personalities begin to surface.

Ek Din Ek Raat, interestingly, is as much a comment on major human fobiles in the worst of unseen power. Shrestha spends the film's first10 minutes or so establishing his characters and the group dynamics.

This what supposed to be chilling Highway journey then starts  to drag us at an agonizingly slow pace - with so many loud characters and toilet humours nagging our temper. The first half is a very very poor show, while the film's second half is marked out for the suspenseful killings. But it also leaves us half thrust , as the preceding concludes with out any suspense revealed .

This in fact, works against Ek Din Ek Raat which ultimately feels like two different films.

Shrestha might have done better to jump straight into the action, establishing his characters and their equations along the way, thereby giving this film the breathless, edge-of-the-seat tension that is sadly missing here. It's something was well pulled off so well in Kagbeni, which dived straight into the tension, creating that ominous feeling at the very start. Likewise Kagbeni (Directed by Bhushan Dahal) , this too bears the very dull first half with an splendid background score. But let me remind you only background music could not stand a bad film.

Nevertheless, the pace in Ek Din Ek Raat picks up post-intermission as one after another the characters are knocked off in thrilling attack scenes that never visually reveal the attacker, but use excellent sound design to conjure up your imagination and confront your worst fears.

Ek Din Ek Raat is neither Kagbeni nor Kaal (hindi film ) which may be obvious inspirations but were different because of the real-time, documentary feel that both films had. Ek Din Ek Raat reminds you more of the early disaster
of Ram Gopal Verma's AGYAAT and AAHAT (SERIAL), where even the audience has no clue what it is exactly that is attacking the characters.

Ek Din Ek Raat has some chilling moments that could make you jump out of your seat, but sadly they were done with so amateurish-finishing.

Coming into performances :
Only Gauri Malla and Vinaya stand tall. Anup Baral looks total fake - gosh what is his character all about, ha! Diya maskey is wasted. Pooja Lama (a model. from nowhere drop in the journas team) looks just sexy . Karma Shakya tries hard to scare you. Newbie Prabesh Giri and Menuka Pradhan look as if they are caricature actors. Jasper Neupane in the film speaks like Einstein, Hilarious!

The writing of the film sucks and Director Shrestha suffers this BIG TIME.

On the whole, barring background score of TSUJIL KARMACHARYA , the film has nothing to boast about. From the business point of view, the masses and classes both will have them closed in their T.V soap-operas rather than running for their hard earned money destroyed. 2010 ends here with this stale film.

I'm going with one and half stars out of five for director Dev Kr. Shrestha's Ek Din Ek Raat; at a time when special effects and digital tricks can be used to create just about anything, here's a reminder that what really scares us is the stuff we can't see.

1.5/5 STARS

JAI CINEMA

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