critic's rating: 2.0/5

Rating: 2 stars

Quick take: Tepid thriller with no real scares 

Oculus was a strangely atmospheric and fairly unique horror film from 2013. The name was a play on eyes and illusion. The story was about a supernatural mirror that could create illusions on its victims and drain their life force by making them go insane. Director Prawaal Raman has remade this film but taken liberties with its screenplay. Where the original Hollywood film was smart in its setup, Dobaara: See Your Evil plays out like a witches, curses and revenge story. Where the original had some smartly conceived horror set pieces, Dobaara doesn’t manage to scare at all. 

In the original film, a sister hatches a plan to destroy an evil mirror known as the Lasser Glass. She does so to clear her brother's name in murder charges against his father. The same thing happens in Dobaara but the story here has some unnecessary additions like a witch's spirit having been trapped in the mirror from 18th century England. Also, unlike the original movie, which had just an idea of the father having an affair with a woman, Dobaara plays out with the father being a flirtatious predator with a sexy woman, who's actually the spirit of the witch. Instead of being a value add to the original story, these overdraft additions make Doobara seem like a monumental mess. The brother-sister duo of Huma Qureshi and Saqib Saleem have reams of dialogue and their banter doesn’t make the film spooky. The first scare arrives late in the second half of the film. Up until then, Dobaara plays out like a tepid family drama.

The second half does have a few scares, but none match up to the menace of the original. Also, the original idea of illusions and deceit just does not come through in the Hindi adaptation. The large part of the blame goes to the clunky dialogue in the film. It doesn't help that the accents of the actors are all over the place too. 

With a cast of Adil Hussain, Huma Qureshi and Saqib Saleem, Dobaara should’ve been a solidly acted film, but all their talents are wasted in a disjointed and illogical screenplay. The production design is downright terrible. The lighting of the film is bright and uneven, definitely not an asset for a dark horror film. 

Dobaara: See Your Evil just doesn't manage to conjure up any scares. The mind games and character interactions do add some food for thought. But the affair with a ghost bit seems more outrageous than frightening. If only it had stayed true to its source material, it wouldn't have been such a damp squib.